Marielle Lerner
LING 563
9/29/2010
Assignment #2: Triggering Events
Two separate changes relating to the phoneme /f/ in word-initial position in Spanish have been
explained with external triggering events. The first change is:
1) Latin /f/ > Castilian /h/ > Modern Spanish > /ø/
Native Latin words only contained /f/ in word-initial position, with the exception of some words
formed by adding a prefix to a previously /f/-initial word, e.g. defendere 'to defend.' /f/ may have
represented a pronunciation ranging from /f/ to /ɸ/ (according to Lloyd (1987) its phonological
isolation as one of only two fricatives in Latin meant that its spelling was not likely to change
according to any change in its pronunciation). In the transition from Late Latin to Old Spanish,
/f/ first changed to /h/ preceding back vowels (which were also round: /o/ and /u/) word-initially.
1a) /f/ > /h/ / __ #[[+vocalic, +back]
e.g. Lat. fumu > Castilian humo [humo] > Mod. Sp. humo [umo] "smoke"
Allophone levelling then took place in northern Spanish dialects, so that /h/ was substituted for
/f/ preceding all vowels.
2a) /f/ > /h/ / __ #[ [+vocalic, +back]
e.g. Lat. farina > northern OldSp. harina [harina] > Mod. Sp. harina [arina] "flour"
The cause of this change has been attributed to contact with Basque, due to its lack of a labial
fricative. In a period of contact between Basque, Cantabrian, and Iberian dialects, Basque
speakers apparently produced /h/ in an attempt to produce the non-native Latin-Romance /f/.
This change was in place by the eleventh century in the north of Spain, as it was the region with
most contact with Basque speakers, and after a period of variation was established in the
standard literary dialect by the 16th century. Further evidence of influence from Basque comes
from a concurrent change in Gascony, a region located to the north of the Pyrenees and also
inhabited by Basque speakers. In Gascony, /h/ took over /f/ preceding all vowels at the time that
/h/ was only an allophone of /f/ preceding back vowels in northern dialects of Old Spanish
(Lloyd pp.46, 218-223).1
e.g. Lat. fructu > Gascon heruto "fruit"
Lat. festa > Gascon hesto "feast, holiday"
However, Lloyd is careful to note that contact with Basque cannot be the sole cause of this
change because similar changes have occurred in unrelated, geographically separated languages.
He gives as examples:
1
Arguments against influence of Basque on this change are based on similar changes occurring in LatinRomance in regions with no Basque speakers, as well as the lack of this change in other regions populated
by Basque speakers.
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian */f/ > Maori and Hawaiian /h/
Kanarese initial /p/ > /h/ > /ø/
Mongolian /ɸ/ > Mongolian /h/ > most Mongolian languages /ø/
I would not discount contact with Basque as the trigger for this change, although it may not be
entirely explanatory as the cause of the change. In addition to the similar sound change
processes listed above, lenition has also been common in Spanish in many instances throughout
its history, affecting different phonemes (/d/ > /ð/ and sometimes >/ø/ intervocalically, /s/ > /h/
and/or /ø/ in syllable-final position, etc.). It could be argued that lenition is simply an observable
tendency in Spanish (or possibly in all languages), but that each instance of lenition might have a
different trigger that sets it off.
The second change involves the reinstitution of /f/ as an independent phoneme after the previous
/f/ had developed the allophone /h/ word-initially. At this point (in the stage of Medieval
Spanish), /f/ and /h/ still existed as allophones of the same phoneme, the latter appearing wordinitially, and the former elsewhere. A phonemic split occurred when "new" Latinisms with
word-initial /f/ were introduced into the language. The previous allophonic relationship between
/f/ and /h/ was obscured, so that /f/ and /h/ were consequently reanalyzed as separate phonemes.
The triggering event for this change was liturgical reform beginning in the twelfth century.
Gallic clergy were brought to Spain to implement the reform, which included a reformed
pronunciation of written Latin. Spanish clerics trained in the reform pronunciation must have
been instructed to use /f/ in those Latin words where it was written word-initially. Subsequently,
many of these Latinisms were adopted into spoken Spanish (Lloyd p.324).
e.g. Mod. Sp. humo "smoke" vs. fumar "to smoke"
hembra "female" vs. feminina "feminine"
hecho "made, done" from hacer vs. fecha "date," from fecha carta "(this)
letter written"
References
Lloyd, Paul M. 1987. From Latin to Spanish. Philadelphia: American Philosophical
Society.