[r]→[s]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 3/5

Alveolar trill to Voiceless alveolar fricative

The shift from the rhotic [r] to the alveolar fricative [s] is known as assibilation. While the reverse (rhotacism) is more common, rhotics can shift toward sibilants when they acquire intense friction or during the simplification of historical clusters involving sibilants.

Phonetic Effects

Assibilation, Spirantization, Cluster Simplification

Language Examples

American English Germanic

arse [rs] (British)→ass [sː]— Simplification of the rhotic-sibilant cluster, resulting in the loss of the rhotic and the stabilization of the sibilant.

Andean Spanish Romance

perro [r] (trill)→[peʐo] / [peso]— Assibilation of the trill, where the sound acquires a buzzy, sibilant-like friction.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Romance Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction

Sources & References

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