From: gprosti
Message: 65691
Date: 2010-01-19
>When is this substitution first attested? Do English words (or other foreign words) help at all in the dating of [s'] > [S]?
>
>
> Since nobody else has answered, I'll take a stab at this one:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "gprosti" <gprosti@> wrote:
> >
> > I believe that Old Irish palatalized <s,t> (as in <secht>, <ticfaid> etc.) are pronounced in Modern Irish like English <sh> and <ch> respectively.
>
> I don't think this is universal, there are as far as I know areas where the outcome of *t' is still not an affricate. The outcome of *s' seems to be [S] generally, but anybody with better knowledge of Irish dialectology are invited to correct me.
>
> > Are there any theories as to when this change happened?
>
> There is a sound substitution, whereby initial English ch- is rendered by Irish s'- (already [S] then?)