ainurakne wrote: Okay... I'll try to understand all this. Thanks!
In any case, fricatives were the last stage - it explains why Estonian and Eastern Finnish dialects
(likely the Karelian language, too, because the dialects there and Karelian have come from the same pre-something-language) have the gradation of /t/ -> ∅ while Western Finnish dialects have /t/ -> /l/ or /r/ or /ɾ/, and also why there was this small area around Rauma in south western coast where they had /t/ -> /ð/.
Also, Agricola used <d> and <dh> for the sound that later became /l, r, ɾ/ or ∅, and <th> for /θ/ *, so it's easy to believe his <dh> was a fricative as well. I mean, his writing system is quite wild, but it's not
that illogical. If I remember right, Swedish had dental fricative(s?) too, and they were written with <th> and <dh>. This was mentioned during one course like 3 years ago so I can't guarantee this is 100% accurate now.
*
...which in turn became /ts, tt, ht/ in strong grade, eg. Estonian mets, dialectal Finnish mettä, mehtä, and quite a lot of different sounds in the weak grade, eg. Estonian ise and Finnish itse, itte, ite, ihe, ihte.About the clusters: I think it was only the nasals that changed the voiceless stop into a voiced stop, eg.
ranta >
randan. This is super scientific now, I know, but Estonian and some Finnish dialects have
selg >
selja, and at least to me [selɣa] sounds closer to [selja] than [selga] does.
And there are Finnish dialects with
selkä >
selään, and I think it's more logical that a fricative has been "replaced" by an extra vowel than that a voiced stop became a vowel.
Except in the game I know what to expect (or at least to expect something), real life makes me wonder sometimes whether I have memories from some alternative timelines or just a crappy memory and a wild imagination.
Can't you check the edit history somewhere? I'm quite sure there was some kind of history page or something where you could see who has edited and what and how.