Assibilation

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, ṯāʾ, pronounced θ in MSA, becomes s (as MSA /θaqaːfah/ → Levantine /saqaːfeh/ "culture"); ḏāl, pronounced ð in MSA, becomes z (as MSA /ðanb/ → Levantine /zamb/ "guilt"); and ẓāʾ, pronounced ðʕ in MSA, becomes zʕ (as MSA /maħðʕuːðʕ/ → Levantine /maħzʕuːzʕ/ "lucky"). Diachronically, the phoneme represented by the letter ǧīm has, in some dialects, experienced assibilation as well. The pronunciation in Classical Arabic is reconstructed to have been [ɡj] or ɟ (or perhaps both dialectically); it is cognate to ɡ 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 ʒ, the result of a process of palatalization starting with Proto-West Semitic ɡ, then [ɡj] or ɟ, then d͡ʒ (a pronunciation still current) and finally ʒ (in Levantine and non-Algerian Maghrebi). The last pronunciation is considered acceptable for use in MSA, along with ɡ and d͡ʒ. 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 *ti changed to /si/. The alternation can be seen in dialectal and inflected word forms: Finnish kieltää "to deny" → kielti ~ kielsi "s/he denied"; vesi "water" vs. vete-nä "as water". An intermediate stage /ts/ is preserved in South Estonian in certain cases: tsiga "pig", vs.