Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Palatalization in Spanish

Many Spanish words with ch have ct in Latin. In Italian, however, they have tt. The sound change in Spanish exemplifies palatalization. Here is a list of words in Italian and Spanish to illustrate:

  • biscotto bizcocho (biscuit)
  • dritto derecho (straight)
  • latte leche (milk)
  • lutta lucha (struggle)
  • notte noche (night)
  • otto ocho (eight)
  • petto pecho (chest)
  • sospettoso sospechoso (suspicious)
  • stretto estrecho (narrow)
  • tetto techo (roof)
The words from the list have ct in Latin. To compare, the Latin words for eight, night and roof are noctis, octo and tectum. The Italian words are derived by the process of assimilation and the Spanish words by the process of palatalization.

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