Basque 'sei'

[Rick Mc Callister]

[snip]

>[Ed Selleslagh]

>The nature of the contrast of the two Iberian sibilants is not entirely
>unknown, as some toponyms have survived: e.g. Saitabi(a) > Xa'tiva, which
>indicates that the S must have been rather closer to Basque (apical) s than z.
>Some Iberian words are extremely similar to some Basque words (I know you
>don't accept this to be anything but coincidence), and these similarities
>always point to a systematic correspondance of the two Iberian sibilants and
>Basque s and z.

[snip]

>>Castilian /s/ simply continues Latin /s/, except that it is
>>apical, whereas the Latin /s/, on the Basque evidence, was probably laminal.
>>But the Castilian theta derives ultimately, in most cases, from Latin /k/
>>before a front vowel; this is thought to have become some kind of affricate
>>before developing into theta (or into /s/, according to region).

	There were voiced and unvoiced forms affricates <z> /_dz_/ and <c>,
<c,> [c cedilla] /c/ in Castilian, although the spelling is not always
coherent
	In some cases, /c/ is from Arabic, e.g. <cid>

>[Ed]

>In derivations from Latin this true, but in all other cases it is not. I
>didn't
>mean that the Castilian s/z distinction is descended directly from the Basque
>apical/laminal opposition, as a parallel evolution in particular words, but
>that its very existence is due to a pre-existing awareness of such a
>phonological distinction (it did in Iberian), something most European
>languages
>don't have (and ditto for the rhotics).

>>> What about Arabic? It certainly has various sibilants.

>>Yes, but it does not have an apical/laminal contrast, and I know of no
>>evidence that Arabic phonology had any effect on Castilian phonology, still
>>less on Basque phonology.

	It does have a relaxed/emphatic contrast [if that's the right
terminology] (both voiced and unvoiced) and the emphatic /S/ does have a
muffled quality that is similar in some aspects to apical /S/
	On the other hand, there may have been differences in Andalusian
Arabic or Arabic spoken by Berbers who settled in Spain

	There is a class of words in Spanish, of which Ja/tiva is one, in
which <s> > <x> /_sh_/ > <j> /x, h/
	jabo/n "soap", is another example
	In grad school, these were quicked explained as "Mozarabic" forms,
giving the impression that this was a phenomenon of Southern Ibero-Romance

[snip]

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