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yeísmo
EntityQ221250· pop 17· linked from 139 articles

Also known as yeismo

right|280px|thumb|Regions with the merger () in blue, regions with distinction in pink, mixed regions in purple|class=skin-invert-image right|220px|thumb|Regions with the merger () in blue, regions with distinction in pink, mixed regions in purple|class=skin-invert-image '''''' (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of many dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the voiced palatal fricative phoneme (written ). It is an example of delateralization.

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12 sections
Contents
  • Pronunciation
  • {{lang|es|Zheísmo}} and {{lang|es|sheísmo}}
  • Geographic extent
  • Minimal pairs
  • Similar phenomena in other languages
  • Romance languages
  • Other
  • See also
  • References
  • Bibliography
  • Further reading
  • External links

right|280px|thumb|Regions with the merger () in blue, regions with distinction in pink, mixed regions in purple|class=skin-invert-image right|220px|thumb|Regions with the merger () in blue, regions with distinction in pink, mixed regions in purple|class=skin-invert-image ' (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of many dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the voiced palatal fricative phoneme (written ). It is an example of delateralization.

In other words, and represent the same sound, , when is present. The term comes from one of the Spanish names for the letter (). Over 90% of Spanish speakers exhibit this phonemic merger. Similar mergers exist in other languages, such as French, Italian, Hungarian, Catalan, Basque, Portuguese or Galician, with different social considerations.

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