[z]→[ɾ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Voiced alveolar fricative to Voiced alveolar flap

The transformation from a voiced alveolar fricative to an alveolar flap is a classic example of rhotacism, a process where sibilants or other consonants shift into rhotic sounds, most famously documented in Latin and Germanic languages.

Phonetic Effects

Rhotacism, Lenition, Sonorization

Language Examples

Latin Italic

honos-is→honoris— Intervocalic /s/ voiced to /z/ before shifting completely to the rhotic /r/.

Old English Germanic

*wēz-un→wæron (were)— The Proto-Germanic /z/ (often from /s/ via Verner's Law) shifted to /r/ in the North and West Germanic branches.

Related Transformations

Voicing Assibilation

More Germanic Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ɛ] — Vowel Raising

Sources & References

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