More on dental fricatives

[Rick Mc Callister]

	How are Spanish <s> & <z> (and "soft c") treated in loan words?
	Is <s> always <s> & <z> always <z>?
	Do Spanish-speaking Basques use apical /S/ or laminal /s/?
	Is apical /S/ is dying out --or diminishing--  in Spain?
	Most Spaniards I've met (from northern and central Spain) in the US
and Latin America use laminal /s/.
	Is this linked to social class or is it a generational thing?

>David White writes:

>[LT, on Basque]

>>> but the curious thing is that they accept phonetic theta when
>>> it represents Spanish /d/, but not when it represents Spanish theta.

>> Perhaps I am merely displaying my ignorance (or lack of full
>> comprehension of previous missives), but aren't positional considerations
>> relevant here?  Does Spanish theta (when not from /d/) occur finally?

>Yes, though the frequency is not high, except in names: <haz> 'sheaf',
><vez> 'time, occasion', <voz> 'voice', <ajedrez> 'chess', <luz> 'light',
><cruz> 'cross', and all those Spanish surnames like <Gomez>, <Lopez>,
><Gutierrez>, <Vasquez>, <Gonzalez>, and <Sanchez>.  There are also
>some Basque place names which get final theta in Spanish, an example
>being Spanish <Zarauz> for Basque <Zarautz>.

>Spanish <voz> 'voice' is borrowed into Basque as <boz>, with a laminal
>sibilant, and not with theta, or sometimes as <botz>, with the more
>normal (in final position) laminal affricate.

>Larry Trask

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701