In an attempt to find a satisfactory and comprehensive explanation for the history of the sibilants in Peninsular Spanish, I explore the causal factors that were instrumental in motivating, promoting and diffusing the merger of voiced and voiceless sibilants. An investigation of these factors includes a discussion of language typology and universals, the acoustic qualities of the sibilant fricatives, issues surrounding phonemic mergers and dialect contact and mixing. In addition, I investigate the history of the sibilants, compare and contrast opposing views regarding that history and set forth those issues that have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation. Furthermore, I attempt to determine the geographical and chronological origins and the diffusion of this sound change by an orthographical investigation of several medieval documents and texts. In the final chapter, I tie together theory and data with the aim of giving a satisfactory and comprehensive exposition of the history of the sibilants in Peninsular Spanish. I conclude that the Spanish sibilants behave in keeping with the ideal observations set forth by the language universals examined in this thesis. The language-internal motivations include the ease in the articulation of voiceless sibilants in comparison to the voiced sibilants and the conditions that made the Old Spanish sibilants ripe for merger. Dialect mixing and contact and the weak ties within the social structure of medieval Spain are the language-external motivations that encouraged and promoted the sound merger and diffusion. With regard to the geographical and chronological history of the Spanish sibilants, I conclude that by the mid-thirteenth century, there is evidence of confusion of the /z/ and /s/ and by the end of the thirteenth century, neutralization of voice in the sibilants is widespread in all parts of Iberian Peninsula. There is possible evidence of seseo in Toledo as early as 1330 and in Soria in 1355. Evidence of the merger of [+voice] sibilants and [-voice] sibilants continues to mount throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Central Spain, there is strong evidence of seseo in Madrid (1403-06), Peñafiel (1465) and Toledo (1438). and I, therefore, contend that early seseo is not exclusively Andalusian. By the mid-fifteenth century, there is possible evidence of merger of /z/ and /s/ in Southern Spain and by the sixteenth century, there is possible evidence of the merger Of /z/ and /s/ in Northern and Central Spain and possible evidence of zezeo and çeçeo in Southern Spain.

Unitary cardinals are a common source for indefinite markers. This thesis is a quantitative diachronic study of the development of Spanish un, from its cardinal value to its use as an indefi nite article. Based on a corpus comprising texts from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, I present an analysis and chronology of the main changes undergone by un throughout this period, notably its increasing use as a marker of non-speci c indefinites, and its further incorporation in generic noun phrases and predicates. Additionally, I demonstrate that the development of the plural indefinite determiner unos is, with a few restrictions, parallel to that of its singular counterpart, not only in its increasing frequency, but also in its introduction into new contexts. Furthermore, I present a comparison between un and alg un in terms of speci city and conclude that although there are evident links between them, both being inde nite determiners derived from Latin unus, they have always had di erent functional domains. Finally, I show that one of the consequences of the incorporation of un into generic contexts is the rise of the so-called impersonal uno, and explain that this event is crucial to explain the disappearance of another generic pronoun, omne, whose last examples are found in the sixteenth century, that is, precisely the moment where the first instances of impersonal uno occur.

This thesis consists of a survey of the linguistic features of datable aljamiado manuscripts, taken as nearly as possible at twenty year intervals from 1429 to 1597, with the purpose of ascertaining to what extent Morisco writings in Arabic character shed any light on contemporary Spanish pronunciation and whether any chronology of sound-change in Castilian can be recorded from the collated evidence. The chief features examined are initial F-, the sibilants, the plosive and fricative value of d and the possibility of early instances of yeïsmo. On the whole it has been found that the Moriscos were not innovators and the language of even late sixteenth-century manuscripts still shows forms current at the beginning of the century. The thesis includes transcriptions of extracts from MSS. B.N.5319, J.1, B.N.5073/6/7/12, B.N. 4908/1, B.N. 5364, T.13, T.16, B.N.5223 and J.30. There is also a Glossary

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 245-258). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

The author's thesis, Toulouse. / "Indications bibliographiques": p. [191]-198.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1951. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-88). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M.A.)--Sonoma State University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 15-19)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed March 2, 2010). PDF text: viii, 163 p. : ill. ; 4 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3378555. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.