s > r (Iberian)

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
bwald <bwald at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU> wrote:
 
>I am curious about this situation because I have long had the impression
>that what is historically distinctive of Castillian and the Spanish-area
>around it, but not extending to Portuguese, Catalan or other adjacent
>Romance languages is the *devoicing* of voiced fricatives, /z/ > /s/ among
>them.
 
The phenomenon does extend to "apitxat" Valencian Catalan, i.e. the
central Valencian dialects of Valencia city and province (not N and S
Valencian of Castello' and Alacant provinces).   The rules are:
 
-v- > -b-       venia = /be'nia/ (also in std. Cat. /b@'ni@/)
-z- > -s-       casa  = /'kasa/  (std. Cat. /'kaz@/)
-Z- > -S-       pujar = /pu'Sar/ (std. Cat. /pu'Za/)
-dZ- > -tS-     metge = /'metSe/ (std. Cat. /'medZ@/)
 
I think "apitxat" also shares with Lleidata` Z > dZ initially and
after /n/, so that the tongue twister <setze jutges d'un jutgat
mengen fetge d'un penjat> ("16 judges of a courthouse eat liver from
a hanged man") becomes:
 
std. lg.  /sEdz@ ZudZ at s dun ZudZat menZ at n fedZ@ dun p at nZat/
Lleidata` /sedze dZudZes dun dZudZat mendZen fedZe dun pendZat/
Valencia` /setse tSutSes dun tSutSat mentSen fetSe dun pentSat/
 
The big difference with Castilian is that there is no Z/S > x
development (nor dz/ts > /T/).
 
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam