<OT> The alternation between the flap /r/ and the fricative /z/

[Paul Boersma]

At 20:06 +0100 2-6-2003, Lee, Amy P wrote:
>(a) whether anyone had suggestions about how this alternation came about in two completely different languages

the articulatory difference between /r/ and /z/ can be minimal, involving no more than a difference in degree of constriction. The /r/'s vibration is passive, brought about only by having the tongue tip at exactly the right distance from the roof. Since neither sound can be said to be universally more perceptible than the other (/r/ has audible vibration, /z/ has sibilant noise), and both sounds have some articulatory difficulty (for /r/: the critical position; for /z/: the combination of frication and voice) we expect changes in both directions, i.e. both /z/ -> /r/ and /r/ -> /z/.

>(b) whether anyone know of any other similar cases in other disparate languages.

Early Latin intervocalic <s> (i.e. [z]) turned into /r/ in classical Latin (kwaiso > quaero, cf. quaestus; compare Latin 'soror' with English 'sister'). Early Germanic /z/, but not /s/, turned into /r/ in most of the daughter languages (e.g. English 'hear' vs. Gothic 'hausjan', from *hauzjan); since early Germanic had /s/-/z/ alternations as a function of pitch accent (Verner's law), we end up with such morphological alternations as 'lose' ~ '(for)lorn' (from 'lEusan' ~ 'luzAn').
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Paul Boersma
Institute of Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam
Herengracht 338, 1016CG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/paul/
phone +31-20-5252385