historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

, betacism (, ) is a sound change in which (the

voiced bilabial plosive The voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b. The voiced bilabial stop o ...

, as in ''bane'') and (the voiced labiodental fricative , as in ''vane'') are confused. The final result of the process can be either /b/ → or /v/ → Betacism is a fairly common phenomenon; it has taken place in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, and several

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

Greek

In Classical Greek, the letter beta ⟨β⟩ denoted . As a result of betacism, it has come to denote in

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

, a process which probably began during the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

period, approximately in the 1st century CE, along with the spirantization of the sounds represented by the letters . Modern (and earlier Medieval) Greek uses the digraph ⟨μπ⟩ to represent . Indeed, this is the origin of the word ''betacism''.

Romance languages

Perhaps the best known example of betacism is in the

. The first traces of betacism in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

can be found in the 3rd century CE. The results of the shift are most widespread in the

Western Romance languages Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Gallo-Romance and Iberian Romance branches. Gallo-Italic may also be included ...

, especially in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, in which the letters ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩ are now both pronounced (the voiced bilabial fricative) except phrase-initially and after a

nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...

, when they are pronounced ; the two sounds ( and ) are now allophones. Betacism is one of the main features in which Galician and northern

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

diverge from central and southern Portuguese. In Catalan, betacism features in many dialects, but not in central and southern

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...

or the

Balearic dialect Balearic ( ca, balear) is the collective name for the dialects of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands: in Mallorca, in Ibiza and in Menorca. At the last census, 746,792 people in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to speak Catalan, th ...

. Other Iberian languages with betacism are Astur-Leonese and Aragonese (in fact, the latter has a pronunciation-based orthography changing all v's into b's). Another example of betacism is in Neapolitan, or in Central Italian (particularly in Macerata) which uses ⟨v⟩ to denote betacism-produced , such that

''bucca'' corresponds to Neapolitan ''vocca'' and to Maceratese "vocca", Latin ''arborem'' to ''arvero'' or ''arvulo'', and ''barba'' to Neapolitan ''varva'' and Maceratese "varba".

Betacism in Latin

A famous

medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...

saying states: The saying is a pun referring to the fact that the Iberians would generally pronounce the letter ''v'' the same as ''b'' (which uses the sound or � instead of or In Latin, the words ''vivere'' ("to live") and ''bibere'' ("to drink") are distinguished only by the use of the letters ''v'' and ''b'', thus creating a point of confusion in the Iberian pronunciation.

Hebrew

Betacism occurred in Ancient Hebrew; the sound (denoted ⟨ב⟩) changed to and eventually to except when geminated or when following a consonant or pause. As a result, the two sounds became allophones; but, due to later sound changes, including the loss of gemination, the distinction became

phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...

again in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the H ...

Notes

References