Rhotacism

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Template:Short description Template:About Template:Sound change Rhotacism (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell)<ref name="collins_american">Template:Cite web</ref> or rhotacization is a sound change that converts one consonant (usually a voiced alveolar consonant: Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, or Template:IPA) to a rhotic consonant in a certain environment. The most common may be of Template:IPA to Template:IPA.<ref name="Catford2001">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> When a dialect or member of a language family resists the change and keeps a Template:IPA sound, this is sometimes known as zetacism.

The term comes from the Greek letter rho, denoting Template:IPA.

Albanian

The southern (Tosk) dialects, the base of Standard Albanian, changed Template:IPA to Template:IPA, but the northern (Gheg) dialects did not:<ref name="Catford2001" />

Aramaic

In Aramaic, Proto-Semitic n changed to r in a few words:

  • bar "son" as compared to Hebrew בֵן ben (from Proto-Semitic *bnu)
  • trên and tartên "two" (masculine and feminine form respectively) as compared to Demotic Arabic tnēn and tintēn, from Proto-Semitic *ṯnaimi and *ṯnataimi. Compare also Aramaic tinyânâ "the second one", without the shift.

Basque

Aquitanian *l changed to the tapped r between vowels in Basque.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> It can be observed in words borrowed from Latin; for example, Latin caelum (meaning "sky, heaven") became zeru in Basque (caelum > celu > zeru; compare cielo in Spanish). The original l is preserved in the Souletin dialect: caelum > celu > zelü.

Finnish

Western dialects of Finnish are characterised by the pronunciation Template:IPA or Template:IPA of the consonant written d in Standard Finnish kahden kesken- kahren kesken (two together = one on one).Template:Examples needed The reconstructed older pronunciation is Template:IPA.

Goidelic languages

In Manx, Scottish Gaelic and some dialects of Irish, Template:IPA becomes Template:IPA in a variety of consonant clusters, often with nasalization of the following vowel. For example, the Template:IPA cluster developed into Template:IPA, as in Scottish Gaelic Template:Lang Template:IPA ‘hill’.<ref name="Catford2001" /> Within Ireland, this phenomenon is most prevalent in northern dialects and absent from the most southern dialects. Some examples of rhotacized clusters include Template:IPA (cnó), Template:IPA (mná), Template:IPA (gnó), and Template:IPA (tnáith), while Template:IPA (snámh) is never rhotacized even in the most innovative dialects. This can lead to interesting pairs such as nominative an sneachta Template:IPA versus genitive an tsneachta Template:IPA.

Germanic languages

Template:See also All surviving Germanic languages, which are members of the North and West Germanic families, changed Template:IPA to Template:IPA, implying a more approximant-like rhotic consonant in Proto-Germanic.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> As attested by runes, the shift affected Old Norse later than the Continental Germanic languages. Some languages later changed all forms to r, but Gothic, an extinct East Germanic language, did not undergo rhotacism.

Proto-Germanic Gothic Old Norse (Old English)
Modern English		 Old Frisian<ref>D. Hofmann, A.T. Popkema, Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch (Heidelberg 2008).</ref> Dutch (Old High German)
Modern German
*was,1st/3rd sg *wēzum1st pl was, wēsum
 		 var, várum
 		 (wæs, wǣron)
was, were		 was, wēren  
was, waren		 (was, wārum)
Template:Grey, waren
*fraleusaną,inf *fraluzanazp.part. fraliusan, fralusans
 		 —
 		 (forlēosan, forloren)
forlese, forlorn		 urliāsa, urlāren  
verliezen, verloren		 (farliosan, farloren)
verTemplate:Grey, verloren

Note that the Modern German forms have levelled the rhotic consonant to forms that did not originally have it. However, the original sound can still be seen in some nouns such as Wesen, "being" (from the same root as war/waren) as well as Verlust, "loss" and Verlies, "dungeon" (both from the same root as verlieren/verloren).

Because of the presence of words that did not undergo rhotacisation from the same root as those that did, the result of the process remains visible in a few modern English word pairs:

English

Template:See also Intervocalic Template:IPA and Template:IPA are commonly lenited to Template:IPA in most accents of North American and Australian English and some accents of Irish English and English English,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a process known as tapping or less accurately as flapping:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> got a lot of Template:IPA becomes Template:IPA. Contrast is usually maintained with Template:IPA, and the Template:IPA sound is rarely perceived as Template:IPA.<ref name="Catford2001" />

German

In Central German dialects, especially Rhine Franconian and Hessian, Template:IPA is frequently realised as Template:IPA in intervocalic position. The change also occurs in Mecklenburg dialects. Compare Borrem (Central Hessian) and Boden (Standard German).

Romance languages and Latin

Latin

Reflecting a highly-regular change in pre-Classical Latin, intervocalic Template:IPAslink in Old Latin, which is assumed to have been pronounced Template:IPAblink, invariably became r, resulting in pairs such as these:

  • flōsnom — flōremacc (Old Latin flōsem)
  • genusnom — generisgen (from *geneses, cf. Sanskrit janasas)
  • rōbus,<ref>Template:L&S; Template:L&S</ref> rōbustus — rōbur, corrōborāre (verb from Template:Lang)
  • jūstus — de jūre (from de jouse)
  • est — erō (from esō)
  • gessī, gestō — gerō (from gesō)

Intervocalic s in Classical Latin suggests either borrowing (rosa) or reduction of an earlier ss after a long vowel or a diphthong (pausa < paussa, vīsum < *vīssum < *weid-tom). The s was preserved initially (septum) and finally and in consonant clusters.

Old Latin honos became honor in Late Latin by analogy with the rhotacised forms in other cases such as genitive, dative and accusative honoris, honori, honorem.<ref name="Rosemeyer2014">Template:Cite book</ref>

Another form of rhotacism in Latin was dissimilation of d to r before another d and dissimilation of l to r before another l, resulting in pairs such as these:

  • medius — merīdiēs (instead of *medi-diēs)
  • caelum — caeruleus (instead of *cael-uleus)

The phenomenon was noted by the Romans themselves: Template:Quote

Neapolitan

In Neapolitan, rhotacism affects words that etymologically contained intervocalic or initial Template:IPA, when this is followed by a vowel; and when Template:IPA is followed by another consonant. This last characteristic, however, is not very common in modern speech.

Portuguese and Galician

In Galician-Portuguese, rhotacism occurred from Template:IPA to Template:IPA, mainly in consonant clusters ending in Template:IPA such as in the words obrigado, "thank you" (originally from "obliged [in honourably serving my Sir]"); praia, "beach"; prato, "plate" or "dish"; branco, "white"; prazer/pracer, "pleasure"; praça/praza, "square". Compare Spanish obligado (obliged), playa, plato, blanco, placer, plaza from Latin obligatus, plagia, platus, blancus (Germanic origin), placere (verb), platea.

In contemporary Brazilian Portuguese, rhotacism of Template:IPA in the syllable coda is characteristic of the Caipira dialect. Further rhotacism in the nationwide vernacular includes planta, "plant", as Template:IPA, lava, "lava", as Template:IPA (then homophonous with larva, worm/maggot), lagarto, "lizard", as Template:IPA (in dialects with guttural coda r instead of a tap) and advogado, "lawyer", as Template:IPA. The nonstandard patterns are largely marginalised, and rhotacism is regarded as a sign of speech-language pathology or illiteracy.

Romanesco Italian

Rhotacism, in Romanesco, shifts l to r before a consonant, like certain Andalusian dialects of Spanish. Thus, Latin altus (tall) is alto in Italian but becomes arto in Romanesco. Rhotacism used to happen when l was preceded by a consonant, as in the word ingrese (English), but modern speech has lost that characteristic.

Another change related to r was the shortening of the geminated rr, which is not rhotacism. Italian errore, guerra and marrone "error", "war", "brown" become erore, guera and marone.

Romanian

In Romanian, rhotacism shifted intervocalic l to r and n to r.

Thus, Latin caelum ‘sky; heaven’ became Romanian cer, Latin fenestra ‘window’ Romanian fereastră and Latin felicitas ‘happiness’ Romanian fericire.

Some northern Romanian dialects and Istro-Romanian also changed all intervocalic Template:IPA to Template:IPA in words of Latin origin.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> For example, Latin bonus became Istro-Romanian bur: compare to standard Daco-Romanian bun.

Sicilian

Rhotacism is particularly widespread in the island of Sicily, but it is almost completely absent in the Sicilian varieties of the mainland (Calabrese and Salentino). It affects intervocalic and initial Template:IPA: cura from Latin caudam, peri from Latin pedem, 'reci from Latin decem.

Spanish

In Andalusian Spanish, particularly in Seville, at the end of a syllable before another consonant, l is replaced with r: Huerva for Huelva. The reverse occurs in Caribbean Spanish: Puelto Rico for Puerto Rico (lambdacism).

Other languages

Rhotacism (mola > mora, filum > fir, sal > sare) exists in some Gallo-Italic languages as well: Lombard (Western and Template:Ill) and Ligurian.

In Umbrian but not Oscan, rhotacism of intervocalic s occurred as in Latin.<ref>Buck, Carl Darling. 1904. A grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: with a collection of inscriptions and a glossary</ref>

Turkic

Among the Turkic languages, the Oghur branch exhibits Template:IPA, opposing to the rest of Turkic, which exhibits Template:IPA. In this case, rhotacism refers to the development of Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA to Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA in this branch.<ref>Larry Clark, "Chuvash", in The Turkic Languages, eds. Lars Johanson & Éva Ágnes Csató (London–NY: Routledge, 2006), 434–452.</ref>

South Slavic languages

(This section relies on the treatment in Greenberg 1999.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>)

In some South Slavic languages, rhotacism occasionally changes a voiced palatal fricative Template:IPA to a dental or alveolar tap or trill Template:IPA between vowels:

The beginning of the change is attested in the Freising manuscripts from the 10th century AD, which show both the archaism (ise 'which' < *jь-že) and the innovation (tere 'also' < *te-že). The shift is also found in individual lexical items in Bulgarian dialects, дорде 'until' (< *do-že-dĕ) and Macedonian, сеѓере (archaic: 'always' <*vьsegъda-že). However, the results of the sound change have largely been reversed by lexical replacement in dialects in Serbia and Bosnia from the 14th century.

Dialects in Croatia and Slovenia have preserved more of the lexical items with the change and have even extended grammatical markers in -r from many sources that formally merged with the rhotic forms that arose from the sound change: Slovene dialect nocor 'tonight' (< *not'ь-sь-ǫ- + -r-) on the model of večer 'evening' (< *večerъ). The reversal of the change is evident in dialects in Serbia in which the -r- formant is systematically removed: Serbian veče 'evening'.

See also

References

Template:Reflist

Bibliography

Template:LetterR

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