84295
I've noticed a certain (probably) sound change being illustrated by 雨 （あめ） and
the compounds 霧雨 （きりさめ）and 小雨 (こさめ). It looks like this used to be pronounced
さめ in all contexts, but the s here was lenited, and I was wondering if I could
find more information on this sound change in Japanese and potential other
words where it historically occurred, or where it's displayed in the
descendants of those words. It would also be helpful to know whether this
lenition occurs before vowels other than a.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T14:14:56.777
84293
2021-02-21T17:25:11.287
41984
question
phonology
Sound change 雨 さめ→あめ
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9B%A8#Japanese> has an answer for you in
the section "usage notes".

Basically, it is only one of multiple theories that the /s/ was originally a
part of the word that was dropped (you use the word 'lenited', which [is a
different phenomenon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenition)). The theory I
find more likely is that the /s/ sound filled in the hiatus between the
starting vowel of _ame_ and the final vowel of _kiri_ or _ko_.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T17:13:24.783
84295
2021-02-21T17:25:11.287
2021-02-21T17:25:11.287
41049
41049
84293
answer