• Lumidaub@feddit.org
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    4 days ago

    Wot. That’s crazy. “Labtop” is harder to pronounce (minimally so but still) with voiced b immediately followed by voiceless t. Everything I know about linguistics (not that much, tbh) tells me that, if anything, a thing called “labtop” should over time evolve to be called “laptop”*, because it’s easier on the speaker with voiceless p and t.

    ^* … maybe even lappop…?^

    • OutlierBlue
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      4 days ago

      Yeah it blew me away too. I had thought I’d heard a b sound a few times while talking to people but it wasn’t until someone sent in their device with a note attached that I realized it was a real thing. I’ve seen it a few more times since then (email, etc)

    • monotremata
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      4 days ago

      Clearly something is pushing in the direction of voiced instead. The ultimate form is presumably “lambdop.”