Phonetic changes
I'd like to read up more on phonetic changes that happen in every language, such as uvular fricative ʁ often becoming velar fricative ɣ. Is there a list of common or inevitable sound changes?
No change is absolutely inevitable, nor is any change absolutely impossible. There's only general tendencies and changes that are common or rare. I don't know if there's a list anywhere, it comes down to experience really.
I see, thanks for the answer! I'm asking this since, for fun (and to try and understand linguistics better without a formal education in it outside of High School) I've started up a conlang (constructed language, if you're unfamiliar) which is essentially "Future French". I'm trying to figure out what changes may happen to the phonemes involved. French is my second mother-tongue, so I understand a lot of why it's like it is now (the circumflex accent comes from doubled vowels or a vowel followed by s like baston > bâton and roole > rôle, but I'm at a disadvantage when coming up with future sound changes given I have no background in linguistics.
If you want examples of weird sound changes, try Armenian. In particularly, the development of the word for "two".
Thanks, I'll check it out. Haplology interests me quite a bit, and also sound reversals (comfortably becoming "comfrtbly" and thridd becoming "third").
Right, thanks!
@UtherPendrogn I would base the future French conlang on nowadays youth talk. You can listen to the basic explanation (examples from American US) in this audio (and read it here, but notice that they do not say exactly the same, and it's not only the order what changes), by James Harbeck. I hope you not to be dismayed when knowing that the future, like the past, can't be predicted (audio or text). Other source could be even modern dialects.