Re: Apollo (was Re: [tied] Nostradamus and Dumezil)

From: João S. Lopes Filho
Message: 9683
Date: 2001-09-22

In Portuguese the palatalization of s before consonants and in final syllabes occurs in Portugal, but it's not general in Brazilian Portuguese, It occurs in Rio de Janeiro, several  regions of Northeastern Brazil and in Northern Brazil. But in Southern Brazil this "s" is not palatalized. So, in Rio we pronnounce "estado" (state) as "ishtadu", but in Sao Paulo they say "estadu"
 
----- Original Message -----
From: David Sánchez
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: Apollo (was Re: [tied] Nostradamus and Dumezil)

 
>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