[θ]→[s]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Sibilantization Fricative Iranian Afro-Asiatic

Voiceless dental fricative to Voiceless alveolar fricative

The shift from 'th' (θ) to 's' is a sibilantization process where a non-sibilant dental fricative is replaced by a sibilant alveolar fricative.

Phonetic Effects

Sibilantization

Language Examples

Egyptian Arabic Afro-Asiatic

Classical /θ/→[s]— Sibilantization of the classical dental fricative.

Avestan Iranian

Proto-Indo-Iranian *š (palatal sibilant)→Avestan /s/— Proto-Indo-Iranian *š → Avestan /s/ while Old Persian developed the same sound to /θ/. Classic example: PIE *kmtó- 'hundred' → PII *šatá- → Avestan satəm, but Old Persian θatam. This divergence (Avestan s vs. Old Persian θ) is a defining isogloss within Old Iranian.

Western New Persian Iranian

Old Persian θ (theta) word-initially→New Persian /s/— By Middle Persian and into New Persian, Old Iranian /θ/ collapsed into /s/ word-initially. Western Middle Iranian lost the θ sound entirely, and it is rare in modern varieties. E.g., Old Persian θardiy 'heart' → Persian dil (the θ merged with other consonants along different paths).

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Iranian Shifts

[b] → [v] — Spirantization [d] → [ð] — Spirantization [kʲ] → [s] — Fronting [kʲ] → [ts] — Palatalization [k] → [x] — Lenition

Sources & References

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