[t]→[s]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Voiceless alveolar plosive to Voiceless alveolar fricative

The shift from the voiceless alveolar stop [t] to the alveolar fricative [s] is known as assibilation. It is frequently triggered by a following high-front vowel [i] or a palatal glide [j], where the stop gains friction and eventually loses its closure.

Phonetic Effects

Assibilation, Spirantization, Palatalization

Language Examples

Polish (Mazurzenie) Slavic

sz/cz/dż [ʃ/tʃ/dʒ]→s/c/dz [s/ts/dz]— Mazurzenie: Polish Masovian dialect assibilation where retroflex/palatal sibilants → alveolar; e.g., 'szary' [ʃaɾɨ] → [saɾɨ] (grey). Also shows t→ts in some forms.

Finnish Uralic

vete [t]→vesi [s]— Historical assibilation of t before i.

käte→käsi

Latin to Romance Romance

nationem [tj]→nation [s/ʃ]— Assibilation of the dental stop before i + vowel.

Related Transformations

Reverse Alternative: Palatalization to Affricate

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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