[s]→[ʃ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Palatalization Allophony Mongolic Native

Voiceless alveolar fricative to Voiceless postalveolar fricative

The palatalization of the voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/ into a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant /ʃ/ (sh), typically triggered by following high front vowels or glides.

Phonetic Effects

Palatalization

Language Examples

Irish (Gaelic) Native

sona→/ˈsˠɔn̪ˠə/— happy

seinn→/ʃeːnʲ/— sing

Japanese Native

sushi→[sɯ̥ʃi]— sushi

English Native

sugar→/ˈʃʊɡə(ɹ)/

bless you→[ˈblɛʃu]— Assimilation in rapid speech.

Buryat Mongolic

Proto-Mongolic *si- (sequences with *i)→Buryat /ʃ/ (shi-)— In Buryat, the sequences *si, *ci, *shi all merged as /ʃi/ (shi), creating a three-way neutralization. E.g., Proto-Mongolic *cinar 'quality' → Buryat shanar (via *c→s then *si→ʃi), *sira 'yellow' → Buryat shara. This is the environment where *s did NOT shift to /h/ (which only occurred before non-i vowels) and instead palatalized.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Allophony Shifts

[a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [b] → [bʲ] — Palatalization [b] → [v] — Spirantization [dʲ] → [dʒ] — Affrication

Sources & References

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