pronounced as /notice/In linguistics, assibilation is a sound change resulting in a sibilant consonant. It is a form of spirantization and is commonly the final phase of palatalization.
A characteristic of Mashreqi varieties of Arabic (particularly Levantine and Egyptian) is to assibilate the interdental consonants of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in certain contexts (defined more culturally than phonotactically). Thus,, pronounced pronounced as /link/ in MSA, becomes pronounced as /link/ (as MSA pronounced as //θaqaːfah// → Levantine pronounced as //saqaːfeh// "culture");, pronounced pronounced as /link/ in MSA, becomes pronounced as /link/ (as MSA pronounced as //ðanb// → Levantine pronounced as //zamb// "guilt"); and, pronounced pronounced as /link/ in MSA, becomes pronounced as /link/ (as MSA pronounced as //maħðˤuːðˤ// → Levantine pronounced as //maħzˤuːzˤ// "lucky").
Diachronically, the phoneme represented by the letter has, in some dialects, experienced assibilation as well. The pronunciation in Classical Arabic is reconstructed to have been pronounced as /[ɡʲ]/ or pronounced as /link/ (or perhaps both dialectically); it is cognate to pronounced as /link/ in most other Semitic languages, and it is understood to be derived from that sound in Proto-Semitic. It has experienced extensive change in pronunciation over the centuries and is pronounced at least six different ways across the assorted varieties of Arabic. A common one is pronounced as /link/, the result of a process of palatalization starting with Proto-West Semitic pronounced as /link/, then pronounced as /[ɡʲ]/ or pronounced as /link/, then pronounced as /link/ (a pronunciation still current) and finally pronounced as /link/ (in Levantine and non-Algerian Maghrebi). The last pronunciation is considered acceptable for use in MSA, along with pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/.
In the history of several Bantu groups, including the Southern Bantu languages, the Proto-Bantu consonant *k was palatalised before a close or near-close vowel. Thus, the class 7 noun prefix *kɪ̀- appears in e.g. Zulu as isi-, Sotho as se-, Venda as tshi- and Shona as chi-.
Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian and their closest relatives) had pronounced as /
An intermediate stage pronounced as //ts// is preserved in South Estonian in certain cases: tsiga "pig", vs. Finnish Finnish: sika, Standard (North) Estonian Estonian: siga.
In the High German consonant shift, voiceless stops pronounced as //p, t, k// spirantized to pronounced as //f, s, x// at the end of a syllable. The shift of pronounced as //t// to pronounced as //s// (as in English water, German German: Wasser) is assibilation.
Assibilation occurs without palatalization for some speakers of African American Vernacular English in which pronounced as //θ// is alveolarized to pronounced as //s// when it occurs at the end of a syllable and within a word before another consonant, leading to such pronunciations as the following:[1]
| bathroom | - pronounced as //ˈbæs.ruːm// | |
| birthday | - pronounced as //ˈbɝs.deɪ// |
The slang in African-American Vernacular English popularized to American English by Ty Dolla Sign's eponymous song may have been formed by analysis of an assibilated /d/ phoneme preceding /æ/ in the first syllable of by the subject girl in question who "wanna come to Cali / brown skin, from Miami".[2]
In Proto-Greek, the earlier combinations *ty, *thy and *dy assibilated to become alveolar affricates, *ts and *dz, in what is called the first palatalization. Later, a second round of palatalization occurred and initially produced geminate palatal *ťť and *ďď from various consonants, followed by *y. The former was depalatalised to plain geminate tt in some dialects and was assibilated to ss in others. The latter evolved into an affricate dz in all Greek dialects:
Some Greek dialects later underwent yet another round of assibilation. shifted to pronounced as //si// finally in Attic and Ionic[3] but not in Doric.[4]
The word "assibilation" itself contains an example of the phenomenon, as it is pronounced . The Classical Latin Latin: -tio was pronounced pronounced as //tioː// (for example, Latin: assibilatio was pronounced pronounced as //asːiːbilaːtioː// and Latin: attentio pronounced as //atːentioː//). However, in Vulgar Latin, it assibilated to pronounced as //tsioː//, which can still be seen in Italian: Italian: attenzione.
In French, lenition then gave pronounced as //sj// (like pronounced as //a.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃//)., which was further palatalized in the English derived words to pronounced as //ʃ// (like attention pronounced as //əˈtɛn.ʃən//).
Most dialects of Quebec French apply a more recent assibilation to all dental plosive consonants immediately before high front vowels and associated semivowels, so that the sequences pronounced as //di dj dy dɥ ti tj ty tɥ// become pronounced pronounced as //dzi dzj dzy dzɥ tsi tsj tsy tsɥ// respectively.
Assibilation can occur in some varieties of Spanish such as in Ecuador and Mexico. It is closely related to the phonetic term sibilation.[5]
See main article: Slavic first palatalization and Slavic second palatalization. Palatalization effects were widespread in the history of Proto-Slavic. In the first palatalization, various consonants were converted into postalveolar fricatives and affricates, while in the second and third palatalizations, the results were alveolar.
Some Slavic languages underwent yet another round of palatalisation. In Polish, in particular, dental consonants became alveolo-palatal fricatives and affricates when followed by a front vowel.
In Gorontalo, the reverse of assibilation occurred, when the instances of *s became t (*siku → ti'u "elbow"), however, its sister language Mongondow still partially retains it (siku).[6]