Other consonant clusters within morphemes (both in the beginning and in the end) also show a tendency to be formed with the increasing fricativity in Georgian. On the boundary of syllables, an "unregular" consonant cluster is usually split (devided) between two vowels and forms two "regular" clusters.
The classes of consonants after the increasing
fricativity are presented
in the following table:
I: b p p' d t t' g k k'
dz c c' dzh ch ch'
II: z s zh sh
III: g x q'
IV: v m
V: r l n
(Tevdore Uturgaidze, kartuli enis ponemat'uri
st'rukt'ura,
The phonemic structure of the Georgian language, Tbilisi, Mecniereba,
1976,
p.102).
The consonant clusters having the zero or discretive (interrupted) fricativity (or fricativeness) within one morpheme often signal either the former (original) morpheme boundary in a word or the loan words. The "unregular" or "irregular" cluster can be formed as a result of phonetic processes too. In such cases the different ways for its overcoming occur in dialects:
Metathesis:
shebmuli > shembuli; xshiri >shxiriDespirantisation of fricatives:
mxali>pxali; mzhave >bzhave
Spirantisation of occlusives:
k'bili> k'viliLoss of consonants:
tbili > tvili
bdzaneba > bzaneba
prchxili > pchxili, rka > kaWeaken:
st'umari _ht'umariDefricatisation:
sc'acvla _ st'avlaDevelopment of a vowel:
chrdili _ chirdili(Tevdore Uturgaidze, kartuli enis ponemat'uri st'rukt'ura, The phonemic structure of the Georgian language, Tbilisi, Mecniereba, 1976, p.115-126).
The reverse process occurs as well when one more consonant (most often a sonant) develops in the regular consonant cluster that makes the fricativeness of this cluster discretive (interrupted) , e. g.: v-pckv-ni > v-prckvn-i and gdzili > grdzili > ghrdzili. Then one more step (development of a vowel) can occur in order to overcome the cluster of discretive (interrupted) fricativity: ghirdzil-i.
Sets of three consonants, when involving a sonant, have two variants in dialects:
a) A vowel is found alongside a sonant:
chrdili > chirdili (shade), k'lde > k'ilde
(rock), brma
> birma // burma (blind);
b) A sonant is lost, which may be attended by other
phonetic
changes: k'lde > k'de > k't'e (rock)