Re: /s/ -> /h/ [was: Re: Betreft: Re: k(w)->p]

From: Raymond Brown

> At 2:37 pm -0700 27/1/00, dirk elzinga wrote:
> >On Thu, 27 Jan 2000, yl-ruil wrote (concerning /s/ -> /h/):
> >
> >> I think this change occurs generally because s is voiced to z, which
then
> >> weakens to h-. This is also really quite common in the indo-european
family:
> >> *sawelios --> Greek. helios and Welsh haul (sun, obviously).
> >
> >There is no evidence for an intermediate voiced stage in the
> >alternation between /s/ and /h/. In fact, such a step would make
> >the change less likely. What /s/ and /h/ have in common is the
> >spreading of the vocal folds during articulation--in fact,
> >that's all an /h/ is; spread vocal folds.
>
> Absolutely - both sounds are voicless fricatives.
Ooops, my mistake. I wasn't actually thinking of the strongly voiced
'buzzed' z in english, but maybe more of an apical sound. H is *not* a
voiceless fricative, it's a voiceless glottal approximant. Since (in the
indo-european languages anyway) voiced sound are more readily lost (eg Q -->
0), it seemed more logical to me that a voiced sound would be weakened
rather than a voiceless one.