Editing Consonant mutation (section)

{{Short description|Sound change happening in linguistics}}
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{{Sound change}}
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'''Consonant mutation''' is change in a [[consonant]] in a [[word (linguistics)|word]] according to its [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] or [[syntax|syntactic]] environment.

Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all modern [[Celtic languages]]. Initial consonant mutation is also found in [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] or [[Malay language|Malay]], in [[Nivkh languages|Nivkh]], in [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Southern Paiute]] and in several [[West African languages]] such as [[Fula language|Fula]]. The [[Nilotic languages|Nilotic language]] [[Dholuo]], spoken in [[Kenya]], shows mutation of stem-final consonants, as does [[English language|English]] to a small extent. Mutation of initial, medial and final consonants is found in [[Modern Hebrew]]. Also, [[Japanese language|Japanese]] exhibits word medial consonant mutation involving voicing, ''[[rendaku]]'', in many compounds. [[Uralic languages]] like [[Finnish language|Finnish]] show [[consonant gradation]], a type of consonant mutation.