Re: /s/ to /x/ sound change

Hi!

Thanks for the good answer. It's very easy for me to imagine [k] or
[r] helping following [s.] to become [x]. (Less with [i] or [u] but
if they were more front than now are in Polish...).

Being quite often in Sweden, I can hear myself a sound shift of [s.]
towards [x] like in "sju" or "sjö" words (mentioned by Miguel).
First time I could only hear /x/, nothing else... but it looks like
to me it is articulated quite differently by various people.

Can you recommend something good to read as an introduction to
phonology? (printed or on the web)

Jerzy

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> Hi, Jerzy,
>
> There are a number of natural trajectories of sound change. It's
common for [s] to change into [s.] (a postalveolar or "retroflex"
sound) -- it's enough for the tip of the tongue to be slightly
retracted towards the palate. Both sounds are defined as "coronal",
which means that they are articulated with the front part of the
tongue. Some languages typically realise their /s/ phoneme as a
remarkably retracted fricative in all positions, while in others
retraction is conditiones by certain well-defined phonetic contexts.
In the latter case we may eventually get a split of an original /s/
into two phonemes with quite different phonetic realisations.
>
> The acoustic effect of retraction is enhanced if the sound is "dark"
(velarised), i.e. if the tongue-tip articulation is accompanied by the
raising of the back of the tongue towards the soft palate (the back
part of the roof of the mouth, a.k.a. the velum). If now the
tongue-tip "gesture" is weakened while the tongue-back raising is
emphasised, the fricative may shift towards a predominantly "dorsal"
(tongue-back) rather than coronal articulation, becoming velar [x].
>
> This is what happened in the prehistory of Slavic: first, in some
environments (most notably after *r, *u, *k and *i) PIE *s was
retracted to [s.] (the same or only minimally different development,
known mnemonically as the "r-u-k-i" change, is visible in Indo-Iranian
and Baltic). Then -- and this is a uniquely Slavic development -- this
[s.] changed into velar [x]. When we say that PIE *s became Slavic *x
in this or that context, we in fact take a mental shortcut, taking the
intermediate stages for granted.
>
> Incidentally, when followed by a front vowel or *j, *x was realised
as a palatovelar fricative [ç], which evolved smoothly into Slavic
palatoalveolar *s^ (= [S], pronounced like English "sh"). The latter
sound was then dispalatalised in some languages, becoming again [s.]
(= Polish "sz", Russian "sh"). This is why we have ucho [uxo] 'ear'
but uszy [us.I] 'ears [originally dual]' < *aus(-os), *ausi:.
>
> The articulation of [s] may also be "lenited" or weakened by
reducing the tongue-tip movement; as a result, the fricative may
change directly into the glottal glide ("aspirate") [h] (which is
regarded by many phonologists as a "basic fricative" deprived of any
place-of-articulation components). This development is familiar from
the prehistory of Greek, Iranian and Brythonic Celtic; it also takes
place (in syllable-final positions) in some Spanish dialects. Of
course more complex evolution is also possible, e.g. [s] > [s.] > [x]
> [h].
>
> Our Spanish and Portuguese members could tell fascinating stories
about the development of coronal fricatives in their languages.
>
> Piotr