historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

, betacism ( , ) is a sound change in which (the voiced bilabial plosive, 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,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and several

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

Greek

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

, the letter

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

⟨β⟩ denoted . As a result of betacism, it has come to denote in

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), 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 language sometimes referred to ...

, a process which probably began during the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

can be found in the 3rd century CE. The results of the shift are most widespread in the Western Romance languages, especially in Spanish, 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 majo ...

, when they are pronounced ; the two sounds ( and ) are now allophones. Betacism is one of the main features in which Galician and northern Portuguese diverge from central and southern Portuguese. In Catalan, betacism features in many dialects, but not in central and southern

Valencian Valencian can refer to: * Something related to the Valencian Community ( Valencian Country) in Spain * Something related to the city of Valencia * Something related to the province of Valencia in Spain * Something related to the old Kingdom of ...

or the Balearic dialect. In

Occitan language Occitan (; ), also known by its native speakers as (; ), sometimes also referred to as Provençal, is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, as well as Spain's Val d'Aran in Catalonia; collectively, ...

, betacism is common in Gascon,

Languedocien Languedocien (French name, ), Languedocian, or Lengadocian () is an Occitan language, Occitan dialect spoken in rural parts of southern France such as Languedoc, Rouergue, Quercy, Agenais and southern Périgord. It is sometimes also called Lang ...

and Auvergnat dialects. Other Iberian languages with betacism are Astur-Leonese and Aragonese. 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 Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...

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 ''vīvĕre'' ("to live") and ''bĭbĕre'' ("to drink") are distinguished by the use of the letters ''v'' and ''b'', thus creating a point of confusion in the Iberian pronunciation.

Semitic Languages

Hebrew

Betacism occurred in late Ancient Hebrew. The sound (denoted ⟨ב⟩) changed post-vocalically to and eventually to , except when geminated, when following a consonant, or word-initially when metrically separated from the preceding word-final vowel. As a result, the two sounds were allophones; but, due to later sound changes, including the loss of gemination, the distinction became partially phonemic in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

. Similar processes occurred with other plosive consonants in Hebrew.

Syriac

Syriac shares with Aramaic a set of lightly contrasted stop/fricative pairs, including and .

Notes

References

{{Reflist Sound changes Spanish language Greek language Hebrew language Galician language Catalan language Portuguese language Occitan language Sardinian language Italian language Romanian language