Apical-palatal phonemes derived from -LL- in Mediaeval and Modern High Aragonese: evidence from spelling

Abstract

The use of consonants and consonant clusters such as d, dd, td, z, zs, tz y ts by clerks in the Spanish region of Alto Aragón shows the existence of two different apical palatal phonemes derived from - LL- in the varieties of Aragonese spoken in two different areas within the northern third of the Huesca province: voiced plosive // and voiceless affricate /s/ (< /z/). With the pass of time these changed into new phonemes, respectively as: voiceless dental plosive /t/ and voiceless palatal affricate //. A specific time for the shift cannot be accurately established from the data now available to us, but it seems highly likely that older phonemes, which were common in the most conservative areas, would have already dropped out of use by the turn of the 18th century.