sound change

sound shift
sound shift or root

Universal vocal affinities independent of specific regional sound changes:

A : A E I O U H R l m n : ain air al aph pha va av agh
B : V F P MB W ᵠHUO
C : CH K Q Z S Š G ⇨ DJ
D : T DZ DJ δ ⇨ S
E : A E I O U V W fe er el en we
F : V B PH P E W
G : CH K Z DJ Š C Q R
H : * A E I O U HR CH K G
I : A E I O U ain air il vi wi fi
J : I G DJ Š
K : C CH G Z DG
L : R N LL Y I A …
M : N MW MB lam
N : NG M L ain on vn nv
O : A E I O U H on or
P : B PH F V W
Q : KU CU G KV GV QR KR GR
R : A E L air
S : Š Z C CH SH ⇨ G J … δ TH ⇨ T D
T : D TH TZ δ ⇨ S …
U : A E I O U V W phu bu
V : F B PH P E
W : V F B PH P E
X : C KS K CH GH
Y : H G!
Z : C S TZ K DJ

There are only a few clusters:
P PH F B V W U
Q C K G J <> D T TZ <> Z δ S Š CH C
M N NG <> L R
all can be dissolved into H/Y/W => AEIOU => ø

Which leads to the wildcard fallacy: any word can be transformed into almost any other word if one just uses sound cluster analyzes. This insight led linguist to adhering to only very strict 'formal' allowed sound changes in very narrow settings. Unfortunately, this myoptic approach is not the final solution to the messy nature of language: While it greatly increases the number of false positives and 'folk etymologies', unfortunately it also creates an abhorrent number of false negatives. Especially in contact zones of two unrelated or distantly related languages, because here borrowing usually does not follow strict formal laws, but rather the anything-goes principle: cucaracha => cockroach => Kakerlake. All changes within the above clusters (and beyond) can and will be observed. There is no simple solution to this narrow path, and every single word in the dictionary will potentially create an endless source of debates for linguists, securing their profession ad infinitum. Fortunately if one takes a step back and treats all potential word pairs as an opinionated collections of probable relatives (if a contact between languages is reasonable plausible) the situation is less dire: With the methods of mutational similarity, we might get better insights into relationship trees and can compare connected languages which are traditionally not considered to be related. The languages of the Neolithic homeland are of outmost interest: It seems very plausible that at the time of Gobleki Tepe and Jerusalem, people in the fertile crescent (including Turkey, South Caucasus and Iran) spoke languages which had at least some impact on slightly later proto languages: Proto-Semitic, Proto-Caucasian and Proto-Indo-European.

Over the course of three millennia, most universal sound changes did occur in the Egyptian dialects.

There are some specific regional Egyptian sound changes (those which linguists adore) but most often it is best to think of sound distributions, in fact probability distributions, if one encounters an Egyptian sign. So instead of strictly reading 𓏏 as T, it is best to keep in mind that it also carried at least its natural partner distribution D T TH δ, if not phonetic values DZ DJ DS in certain dialects / epochs. D and T are the most stable.

In fact the Egyptian alphabet fell apart in very similar ways as the roman alphabet: Today the letter 'C' can be read as
K : curriculum as in kitty
S : center as in santa
Z : centaur as in tsunami (German reading)
Š : cevabcici as in short
SH,CH,GH : …

On the other hand some of the letters (Egyptian and Roman) which initially had different readings later collapsed:
C and K and Q have identical values in German (except for Fremdworte)
V and F have mostly identical values in German.

Some languages exhibit sound changes in transition, such as the ambivalence of μβ as m or b, or مطر as mbetar or mnepar or mlepar or mnetar or mletar

Partners

Less often indirect sound changes occur through partners. N Ñ NG ⇨ G R RW WR ⇨ W 𓍢 root,wurzel < WRZ/RWTS •wzerl Q KW W ⇨ V (lux,lupo,wolf<georg) PIE peculiarity G GH ⇨ F (enough) T δ ⇨ S K C ⇨ S (centum/satem)

The more dirty a sound is (broad fourier spectrum), the more it acts as a wildcard for other sounds.

As random mutations all sounds can be changed to other sounds for various reasons, mishearing, reconnection, ommision, reinterpretation, etc etc …

Because of human lazyness and the tendency to save energy, the usual direction of sound change is from hard sounds to soft sounds. (Todo: link list of exceptions) Once a word is (almost completely) word down, in extreme cases to a single vowel (aqua => eau => 'o'), it will commonly be recombined with specifications (eau-mineral) and ultimately replaced with specifications, different roots or reset to older versions of the words roots.