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'Assibilation' is the introduction of sibilance to a sound, to produce a sibilant consonant.
For example, there is a sound change currently in progress in Finnish, where a word-final syllable preceded by a liquid (or even a long vowel) changes to : ''kielti'' → ''kielsi'', or by some speakers ''sääti'' → ''sääsi''.
The word "assibilation" itself contains an example of the phenomenon. The classical Latin ''tio'' was pronounced as (for example, ''assibilatio'' was prounounced and ''attentio'' ). In English, it assibilated to (i.e., assibilation became ) and in Italian to or , as in ''attenzione'' and ''reggio''. The process describes a linguistic change in which a consonant followed by or becomes a sibilant or fricative with loss of the following or (for example, the modern Italian pronunciation of ''medio'' as or .) The process is probably universal in human languages. There are other interesting, related phenomena--for example ''piacenza'' from classical Latin ''placentia'' ()--not only assibilation in the last two syllables (in the Italian form), but the replacement of a liquid for a semi-vowel in the first.

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See also

See also

★ Assimilation (linguistics)

★ Palatalization