Regarding s-aspiration

 Hi Prof. Ohala,
Here are my comments/questions from the last class, thanks!
Comments/Questions #7 - August 1:
I was just wondering if you could clarify a point from the last class.
I had asked about language contact induced sound change (as in the case of the ‘s’
to /h/ or nothing in Latin American Spanish).  You mentioned that you thought it
was a process that had already begun and that was further solidified by
contact,but I am not sure if this is what you meant.  I was under the impression that
African language structure (both phonological and morpho-syntactic) was the
reason that these varieties of Spanish as well as Brazilian Portuguese have
this  alteration > in addition to several others.  Do you think that it could be the
contact with  these African languages that caused the change?  or must it have been
something that was already in motion?  I tend to believe that it was language
contact that induced this specific change, but I am interested in your
thoughts on the matter.

Jill Thorson

Jill,

I have no opinion (or background of facts) to be able to say whether the
contact situation of NW Spanish and Port. being assimilated by African
slaves had anything to do with the 's-aspiration' sound change.  The same
phenomenon is not unknown in other languages that did not have that
particular contact situation as a possible cause (& that's why I cited
Greek and Latin cases, too).  My point -- which was Widdison's point -- is
that there is (or could be) a phonetic causal factor, too.  One should
check the Widdison paper to see if he addresses these issues:  (Google
'Widdison' and 's-aspiration').

JJO 

Here links to two of Widdison's paper on this topic:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B09lW9XhoFydMGFkOTRiMGEtNmE3OC00MGYwLTg0NzctMmQ3MDc1OTM0ZGRh&hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B09lW9XhoFydM2EzN2MxNmMtMzMyZi00NzUyLWJmMTAtZGZkMzI3ZDBjM2M3&hl=en_US