yeísmo
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.
~9 min read
Article
12 sectionsContents
- 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.