[d]→[z]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 3/5
Voiced alveolar plosive to Voiced alveolar fricative
The transformation of a voiced dental stop into a voiced alveolar sibilant is a process known as assibilation or spirantization, frequently occurring before high front vowels or glides.
Phonetic Effects
Assibilation, Spirantization, Lenition
Language Examples
PIE *d before front vowel→[z] (Latvian)— In Latvian, *d → [z] in certain environments before front vowels (palatalization path). E.g., some Latvian dialectal forms show d→dz→z assibilation before /i/.
dieu [d]→[dzie] → [zie]— /d/ affricates to [dz] before high front vowels [i]/[y] in Quebec French; the affricate may reduce to [z] in rapid speech.
Related Transformations
More Romance Shifts
Sources & References
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