[ɾ]→[ʒ]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 2/5

Assibilation Romance Indo-European Slavic

Voiced alveolar flap to Voiced postalveolar fricative

The transformation from an alveolar flap to a voiced palato-alveolar fricative is a form of assibilation and palatalization, where a rhotic sound is strengthened and shifted toward the palate.

Phonetic Effects

Assibilation, Palatalization, Fortition

Language Examples

Andean Spanish Romance

r/ɾ→[ʒ]— In many highland dialects, the rhotic (especially the trill, but also the tap) is realized as a voiced fricative sounding like 'zh'.

Polish Slavic

[rʲ] (historical)→[ʐ]— Historical palatalized rhotic assibilated into a voiced retroflex/palatal sibilant (spelled <rz>).

Related Transformations

Assibilation Weakening

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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