Keywords

Spanish sibilant system, distancing, silibant changes, phonemes

Abstract

The evolution of the Spanish sibilant system has been an object of study since the late nineteenth century. Since that time, a myriad of books and articles have been published on the subject whose major focus has been to determine the exact nature of the sibilant changes and the chronology of each change. As is the case in most historical work, the question of why phonological systems evolve usually takes on only secondary importance. Among those theories proposed in order to explain why phonetic changes occur is the functionalist idea that there needs to be an optimal acoustic distance between the realizations of any two phonemes that must be maintained. If the distance between two phonemes draws too near the phonemes will either merge, or put some "distance" between each other in order to maintain their distinctiveness (Alarcos, "Es bozo" 11).

Original Publication Citation

1990. “Distancing as a Causal Factor in the Development of /θ/ and /x/ in Spanish.” Journal of Hispanic Philology 14.239-245.