Breton mutations

In addition, Breton, like French, has a number of purely phonological sandhi features caused when certain sounds come into contact with others.

Today, a number of nouns beginning with k change to c'h following the articles ar "the" and ur "a": Although this is the same process seen in the spirant mutation (e.g. following hor "our"), it is really an external sandhi which has become fixed in writing.

When these sounds occur word-finally, they may be pronounced voiceless or voiced depending on the word that follows: The table below shows the 'interchangeable' consonants: These changes are never written but occur regularly, regardless of how the final consonant is spelled: More information on this phenomenon can be found in the thesis of François Falc'hun: Le système consonantique du Breton.

This is largely confined to proper nouns (e.g. Itron vMaria "the virgin Maria" is pronounced /ˌitˈrõːn ˈvarˌja/).

[citation needed] Some processes which are properly part of external sandhi have become crystallised in the written language, whilst others have not.