>All right then, what makes Portuguese sound
so distinctive?
The peculiar s-sound of all romanic languages
of Iberia needs a solid
explanation!
Distinctiveness of portuguese is mainly by
cause of cause of
his s-sound (wich sound very palatalized). Also
other romance
languages like spanish and catalan
have s-sounds with a
peculiar
non-dentalized (or palatalized
sound).
In fact I think some non-romance words in
catalan with <x> (= sh)
like: xerinola 'row', xiruca 'boots'
maybe of iberian origin. Also in
catalan we have romanic words that have
undergone the change s > x (sh):
*bassus > baix 'short', susurrare >
xiuxiuejar.
David Sánchez