[ts]→[ð]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 3/5
Voiceless alveolar affricate to Voiced dental fricative
The transformation from the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/ to the voiced dental fricative /ð/ is a documented historical phonetic shift, primarily observed in the evolution of Spanish. This change represents a form of lenition, involving the deaffrication of the consonant, its voicing, and a slight shift in its place of articulation from alveolar to dental.
Phonetic Effects
Lenition, Deaffrication, Voicing, Dentalization
Language Examples
[ts]→[ð]— In the late Middle Ages, Old Spanish dental affricates like /ts/ (as in 'braço' [ˈbɾatso]) deaffricated and voiced, evolving into dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ by the 15th century. While /ð/ was largely lost in standard Spanish, it survived in certain rural dialects, such as Extremaduran Spanish (e.g., 'hacer' [haˈðel], where the /ð/ is a reflex of an earlier affricate).
Related Transformations
More Romance Shifts
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