Re: Latin <h>

E fésto Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@...>:
> Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...> writes:
>> change, and /h/ reappeared in some Romance languages, to disappear
>> again. In Spanish, it came from initial /f/ which turned into /h/
>> (except in front of /w/, which explains  Spanish <fuego> vs. <hablar>
>> from Latin FOCUS and FABULARE, IIRC). This new /h/ disappeared again.
>
> This loss happened sometime just after the Spanish colonized the
> Philippines at least, because certain loanwords that were pronounced with
> an initial H, but lost the H, are pronounced with that H in Philippines
> Spanish (according to a paper on Chabacano, which i'd believe since the
> author had about twenty scholarly sources to write it!).
Actually the loss was probably early, but I think it wasn't lost in all
dialects.  I have read an analysis of a dialect of Central American
Spanish (I forget what region exactly) that retains initial /h/ as well,
even now (well... the book was dated from the 70s).



        *Muke!
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