[s]→[ɾ]Certainty: 3/5Commonality: 5/5
Voiceless alveolar fricative to Voiced alveolar flap
Rhotacism is a well-documented historical sound change where an alveolar fricative, typically the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/, transforms into a rhotic consonant, most commonly an alveolar flap [ɾ]. This process is observed across various language families and historical periods.
Phonetic Effects
Lenition, Weakening
Language Examples
genus→generis— Intervocalic /s/ in the nominative singular shifts to /ɾ/ in the genitive singular.
os→oris— Intervocalic /s/ in the nominative singular shifts to /ɾ/ in the genitive singular.
ceosan→curon— Intervocalic /s/ in the infinitive shifts to /ɾ/ in the past plural.
leosan→luron— Intervocalic /s/ in the infinitive shifts to /ɾ/ in the past plural.
[dosˈθjentos]→[doɾˈθjentos]— In some dialects, syllable-coda /s/ is replaced with an alveolar flap [ɾ] before certain consonants.
Related Transformations
More Romance Shifts
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