Christophe Grandsire <Christophe.Grandsire@...> wrote:
[regarding "flat" [s]]
> >I think Castilian Spanish has this sound for /s/ in almost all positio=
ns,
> >or a very similar one. It's a very distinctive feature. I think Padrai=
c
> >Brown once called it "madrile=F1o hiss", am I right?
> >
>=20
> I agree with you for Castillan Spanish. It seems that Basque and =
Castillan
> Spanish have the same sound for the letter 's'. Well, in fact, I think =
that
> in Spanish, /s/ and this "whistle" are allophones, whereas they are
> distinct phonemes in Basque (written 'z' and 's'). This is a very
> distinctive feature and I wonder whether it's not an influence of Basqu=
e
> over Castillan Spanish (as this sound isn't present in any other Romanc=
e
> language as far as I know). Am I wrong?
It seems quite reasonable. I've also read that a lot of the
alveolar trills <rr> in Spanish come from Basque (which I don't
know much about, except that it seems to have lots of <rr>'s!).
--Pablo Flores