spirantization

1 9.9

A change where a hard stop sound becomes a softer hissing sound in speech

noun
/ˌspaɪrəntɪˈzeɪʃən/

Specialized

: espirantización

Linguists study the phenomenon of spirantization to understand how sounds evolve in spoken communication.
a round of spirantization
a second round of spirantization

Examples

In my judgment, that second round of spirantization, which eliminated from the phonetic level all intervocalic simple voiced stops, compelled speakers to reanalyze the geminates as simple stops in Hispano-Romance.

Academic text (2000)
In the former case, reassignment to the voiced stop phoneme would ensue, leading to spirantization at the phonetic level.

Academic text (2000)
The second round of spirantization eliminated those short counterparts of the intervocalic geminate stops by making them spirants.

Academic text (2000)
Spirantization is the process that transforms a stop consonant into a fricative sound in language.
In phonetics, spirantization refers to how certain consonants shift to a fricative articulation during speech.

Surface Forms

spirantization singular

spirantizations plural

Morphology

spirantization = spirantize (transparent) = spirant + ize + ation

Built from the verb 'spirantize' + the productive noun-forming suffix '-ation'; knowing the verb allows straightforward inference of the noun as 'the process or result of spirantizing.'

Etymology

The word spirantization comes from the root spir- meaning 'to breathe', the same root in inspire and respire. So, spirantization is the process where a hard stop sound like 'p' or 't' changes into a softer, breathing-like sound such as 'f' or 's', which helps you remember the 'breathing' idea behind the name.