Assibilation

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˌsɪbɪˈleɪʃən/

Definitions

1. The alteration in speech where a sibilant replaces a non-sibilant sound in phonetic contexts is a noteworthy linguistic shift
2. This linguistic occurrence describes the transformation in which a non-sibilant sound is articulated as a sibilant, thus changing pronunciation patterns
3. The phenomenon involving the substitution of a non-sibilant sound with a sibilant one during speech illustrates an interesting aspect of phonetic change

Etymology: Assibilation names a sound change in which another sound, often a "t", "d", "k" or "g", shifts into a sibilant, a hissing sound like "s" or "sh". The word is a noun formed from "assibilate", which itself combines the Latin prefix "ad-", meaning "to" or "toward", with "sibilare", "to hiss", and the English suffix "-ion", which turns a verb into the name of the process. So the noun describes the act or result of making a sound hiss. Because the word is a plain technical coinage built from familiar parts, its history is short. Its meaning is fixed by the phonetic terms it borrows, so anyone who knows "sibilant" can work out what "assibilation" means, even without having met it before.