From: David Sánchez
Message: 12440
Date: 2002-02-23
makes this statement: "The Spanish /s/ sound is somehow special and dissimilar to correspondent phonemes of other Romance tongues. The palatal Iberian consonants which influenced Celtiberian and turned its /s/ into /s^/ (compare Gaulish noun endings /-os, -es, -abos/ with Celtiberian /-os^, -es^, -ubos^/), must have influenced also Spanish which led to this specific s. Another thing, now concerning the morphology, deals with Spanish word productive suffixes, some of which are really unique."
(a) In addition I have found a lot of non-Latin words in catalan with /s^/ = <x> like <xerinola>, <disbauxa>, <xiruca> ... of unkown origin to me. Also in catalan we have evolutions of s > s^ in some latin words: Latin *bassu 'short' > catalan <baix> = spanish <bajo>, Latin <susu(rrare)> > catalan <xiuxiu(ejar)>, and <pis> 'pee'
> catalan <pixar>. I think some of these facts maybe originated in iberian.Iberian has two voiceless sibilants <s, s'> and also vasque seem to have complicated sibilant contrast <s, z, x> (all voiceless sibilants!)
(b) But in fact other european languages have a similar /s'/ to that
of Spain, namely Greek, Finish, some dialects of Northern Italy, and perhaps
Sardinian and Corsican. In these zones we now historically have existed
non-indoeuropean mediterranean languages:
-Northern Italy: Ligurian (not just Celtoligurian or Lepontic) and
Rhaetic (Tyrrhenian Family). We now about Tyrrenian family that Etruscan
have also two voiceless sibilants <s, s'> (and perhaps also Rhaetian?)
-Greece: Pelasgian and/or Minoan
-Corsica and Sardinia: Nuragian (Culture of Nuraghe)
-Finland: perhaps its /s'/ is inherited from proto-uralic, hungarian
also have <sz> contrasting with <s>?.
On the scarce evidence presented here my question is if it is reasonable
to think in a Pre-IE Mediterranean Sprachbund with these characteristics:
(i) Existence of al least two voiceless sibilants <s, s'>
(ii) Tendence to not consider voicedless/voiced contrast as phonemic
(as in Basque, in Etruscan, and Iberian)
(iii) Tendence to aglutination (also in Basque, in Etruscan, and Iberian)
David Sánchez