Back to Matrix [ts] → [kʲ] Edit this Data

[kʲ]→[ts]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Palatalization Affrication Assibilation Romance Slavic Lenition Fronting Indo-European Afro-Asiatic East Slavic Ibero-Romance Semitic

Palatalized voiceless velar plosive to Voiceless alveolar affricate

The transformation of a palatalized voiceless velar plosive (kʲ) into a voiceless alveolar affricate (ts) is a well-attested historical sound change, primarily driven by the process of palatalization. This shift involves a forward movement of the articulation point and a change in the manner of articulation from a stop to an affricate.

Phonetic Effects

Palatalization, Affrication, Assibilation

Language Examples

Old Church Slavonic East Slavic

kʲ→ts— Palatalized k' changed to a 'ts' sound (written as 'c') before front vowels resulting from ancient diphthongs. For instance, the Proto-Balto-Slavic *káina 'price' became OCS cěna [tsěna].

Old Spanish Ibero-Romance

kʲ→ts— Latin /k/ before front vowels (e.g., /i/, /e/) underwent velar palatalization, leading to an intermediate palatal stop /c/, and subsequently assibilated to the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/ in Old Spanish. This /ts/ was often written as 'ç'.

Najdi Arabic Semitic

k→ts— In Najdi and related Gulf varieties, the velar stop /k/ affricates to [ts] in the vicinity of high front vowels. While the input is often described as /k/, the conditioning environment implies a palatalized allophone as an intermediate step.

Related Transformations

Reverse Preceding step: Velar to Palatalized Velar Alternative outcome: Palatalized Velar to Palato-alveolar Affricate Subsequent step: Affricate to Fricative

More Romance Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [ai] → [e] — Monophthongization

Sources & References

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