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Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
The ‘f > h change’ 1
Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
1 Stating the ‘f>h change’
Latin initial /f/ is progressively weakened and eventually lost in standard Castilian in popular
words, unless the /f/ is followed by a liquid consonant or a back semivowel ([w]), or in some
instances by a front semivowel ([j]). Weakening also sometimes takes place intervocalically.
This eventually produces a phoneme split, creating for a time /h/ in addition to /f/, until /h/ is
eventually lost. Thus
Lat. furnu(m) // > Sp. horno //
a
Lat. f¢ba // > Sp. haba /a/
e
Lat. f¢rru(m) // > Sp. hierro /iero/
u - -
Lat. s¢bfumare // > Sp. sahumar /saumaR/
-
Lat. defensa // > Sp. dehesa //
but
-
Lat. fratre(m )// > Sp. fraile /R/ (before a liquid consonant)
o
Lat. f¢cu(m) // > Sp. fuego // (before [w])
e
Lat. f¢sta // > Sp. fiesta /fiesta/ (before [j])
a i
Lat. f¢c¢le(m) // > Sp. fácil /f/ (learned borrowing)
2 Phonetic detail
We cannot be sure of the phonetic detail of the change.
2.1 A hypothesis
A possible general scenario is:
[f] > [] > [h] > Ø
Penny’s hypothesis (starting from a supposed ?//):
Stage 1 (late ‘Vulgar’ Latin of Cantabria)
//: [] in the context of following [w]
[] elsewhere
Stage 2 (Dissimilation of [] before lip-rounded vowels)
//: [] in the context of following [w]
[h] in the context of following [o], [u]
[] elsewhere
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Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
The ‘f > h change’ 2
Stage 3 (Generalization of [h] to appear before all syllabic vowels)
//: [] in the context of following [w]
[h] in the context of following [i], [e], [a], [o], [u] and [j]
[] in the context of following [r], [l]
Stage 4 ([] and [] ‘strengthen’ to [f])
/~h/: [f] in the context of following [w], [r], [l]
[h] elsewhere
Stage 5
[f] and [h] split into phonemes /f/ and /h/
Stage 6
/h/ disappears as a result of [h] > Ø
2.2 The evidence
Nebrija’s system of spelling (1492) differentiates between those reflexes of the /f/ which
were preserved as [f] and the /f/ which was eventually to be dropped altogether: the former
generally being spelt as f and the latter as h. [h] is still preserved in some dialects.
Old Castilian texts generally spell all reflexes of /f/ as f (the sporadic use of h increasing with
time), which gives us little clue as to the actual phonetic value of f. Penny (1990) has argued
that there was a distinction between /f/ and /h/ (or ?//) even when both were spelt with f.
3 The ‘irregularity’ of the change
· Simple failure of the rule to apply in one of the expected contexts:
Lat. foedu(m) // > Sp. feo //
Lat. fixu(m) // > Sp. fijo //.
· Plausible semilearned influence?
e
Lat. f¢sta // > fiesta //
e u- i
Lat. f¢br¢ar¢u(m) > Sp. febrero /R/
Lat. forma // > Sp. horma ‘shoe-last’ /oRma/ / forma ‘form’ /foRma/
Lat. facta /ta/ > Sp. hecha ‘done’ // / fecha ‘date’ //
Variation among speakers: weakening may have been more typical of rural speech (see 4.3).
4 Why did the change occur?
4.1 The substrate hypothesis
Latin [f] was modified because Basque learners of Latin found difficulty in pronouncing it.
For:
· Evidence that Basque in the early Middle Ages had no /f/ phoneme.
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Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
The ‘f > h change’ 3
· There is a similar f>h change in Gascon, a striking coincidence (both Castile and Gascony
bordered the Basque Country).
Against:
· /f/ in Latin loanwords in Basque is not adapted to [] or [h] but to a bilabial plosive:
e
Lat. f¢sta // > Basque besta //
-
Lat. fagu(m) // > Basque pago //
· Later Basque speakers do not seem to have problems in borrowing Castilian words
beginning with /f/.
· Why does /f/ survive in Castilian at all? (see 4.4 for a possible answer)
· The movement of [f] to [h] is not an unusual change: it is evidenced in a number of
southern Italian dialects (Rohlfs 1966:206-7) and is widespread in Andalusia and Latin
America. It can easily be seen as an example of articulatory weakening which could have
happened quite independently and so needs no appeal to substrate influence at all.
4.2 The structural theory
The labial articulation of Lat. /f/ as [] in Castile is parallel to that of Lat. /w/ as [] (cf. the
development to [v] in many other Romance languages). (This only explains the first stage of
the change.)
For:
· More consistent with the ‘naturalness’ of the /f/>/h/ change suggested by existence in
other languages (see 4.1).
Against:
• ?// undergoes no parallel subsequent phonetic modification and phoneme split.
4.3 The sociolinguistic theory
Words which apparently do not undergo the change are typical of educated, urban speech,
whereas those which do are typical of popular, rural speech. Any residual irregularity is due
to dialect mixing.
For:
· The existence of doublet developments such as horma and forma.
Against:
• Many apparently popular words fail to undergo the change.
• Why would urban speakers not have used labiodental [f] more consistently and resisted
rural styles of pronunciation?
4.4 Was [f] ‘restored’?
If Lat. /f/ came to be pronounced as [] (see 2.1), how is it that [f] exists in modern Spanish?
Penny’s (1972) suggestion that adstrate influence may be responsible in the shape of the
many influential French and Provençal speakers who came to Castile in the 12th and 13th
centuries. These speakers, who settled in the towns, would have had difficulty in articulating
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Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
The ‘f > h change’ 4
the unfamiliar [] sound and might have adapted it to [f], especially in the ‘difficult’
environments before consonants and the back semivowel [w]. It was in the towns as well that
words of learned origin would have found first acceptance in the spoken Castilian of educated
speakers. Perhaps more significantly, French clerics brought to Castile a new way of reading
Latin aloud (the system of ‘litterae’, see Wright 1982:208-20) through which the labiodental
[f] may have become familiar. Such circumstances might have favoured the adoption of [f]
more generally, and would plausibly explain the many ‘exceptions’ to the f>h rule.
Further reading:
Catalán de Menéndez Pidal, Diego, 1968. ‘La pronunciación [ihante], por /iffante/, en la Rioja del siglo XI.
Anotaciones a una observación dialectológica de un historiador árabe’. Romance Philology, 21, 410-35.
Izzo, Herbert J., 1977. ‘Pre-Latin languages and sound changes in Romance: the case of Old Spanish /h-/’, in
Michio Peter Hagiwara, Proceedings of the Fifth Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (Rowley,
MA: Newbury House), pp.227-53
Jungemann, Frederick H., 1955. La teoría del sustrato y los dialectos hispano-romances y gascones (Madrid:
Gredos).
Malmberg, Bertil, 1971 [1958]). ‘Le passage castillan f > h - perte d’un trait redondant?’, in Phonétique
générale et romane (The Hague / Paris: Mouton), pp. 459-63.
Martinet, André, 1951-2. ‘The devoicing of the Old Spanish sibilants’, Romance Philology, 5, 133-56.
Penny, Ralph J., 1990. ‘Labiodental /f/, aspiration and /h/-dropping in Spanish: the evolving phonemic values of
the graphs f and h’, in David Hook and Barry Taylor (eds), Culture in Medieval Spain: Historical and
Literary Essays presented to L.P. Harvey (London: King’s College), pp.157-82.
Penny, Ralph. J., 1972. ‘The reemergence of /f/ as a phoneme of Castilian’, Zeitschrift für Romanische
Philologie, 88, 463-92.
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Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
The ‘f > h change’ 5
5 Appendix: analysis of the sources of Spanish words beginning with f + V
Source: Corominas
‘Maintenance’ of /f/:
Latin learned (popular doublets in brackets):
fábrica fanático feraz físico
fábula (habla) fascinar féretro fomento
facción (hacer) fatigar férreo formidable
faceta (haz) fatuo fértil fornicar
facial (haz) fauno férula fortuna
fácil (hacer) fausto férvido (hervir) fosa
facsímil (hacer) favor festinar fulgor
factible (hacer) favorable fétido (heder) función
factoría (hacer) favorecer feudo fundir (hundir)
factótum (hacer) favorito fíat (hacer) funeral
factura (hacer) federar fiero funicular
facultad (hacer) felino figura furia
facundo feliz fingir (heñir fuste
fagáceo (haya) femenino ‘amasar’) fútil
fámulo fémur fisco futuro
Greek learned
faetón fantasía fase foca
fagocito faringe fecundo fonético
faisán farmacia fénix fósforo
falange faro fenómeno foto-
falo farola fil-
Arabic French Catalan Portuguese
faleba fagot faena faca (?)
falúa (?) falbalá faja (?) fandango
fanega falsete falda (?) farfullar (?)
faquir (via English or faquín fango fayanca
French?) fardo (?) farallón
farda farsa feble
fárfara ficha foja
fideo (?) fogoso (?) follaje
fulano forraje follón
fustán (?) fusil fornido
forrar (but
cf.ahorrar)
Gallego-Asturiano Italian Occitan English
farruco facha facistol faradio
fachada farándula folklore
farfante fútbol
Possible popular words? (date of first textual attestation in brackets)
falso (10th C.) faz (also haz) (10th feria (1100) fin (1140)
falta (1220-50) C.) (semiculto?) (semiculto?)
falto fe (also as he) (1140) fiebre (1220-50) fino (13th C.)
fallecer (1140) fealdad (semiculto?) firme (1140)
falla (1140) febrero (semiculto?) fiel fisgar
fama (mid 10th C.) fecha (also hecha) fiesta (13th C.) forma (also horma)
familia (1220-50) feligrés (1245) (semiculto?) funda (1335)
feo fijo (1256)
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Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
The ‘f > h change’ 6
Onomatopoeic?
farra fofo
?/f/ > /h/ > Ø
Latin popular
haba hazaña hijo hosco
hablar hebilla hilo hostigar
hacer hebra hincar hoya
hacha heder hinojo hoz
hacia helecho hito hozar
hado hembra hoja huir
halcón heno holgar humo
hallar herir hollar hundir
hambre hermoso hollín huraño
harina hervir honda hurgar
harto hez hondo hurto
hastial hiel hongo huso
hastío hierro horadar
haya hígado hormiga
haz higo horno
?
harapo
hato
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