*ts and *dz, in what is called the first palatalization. Later, a second round of palatalization occurred and initially produced geminate palatal *ťť and *ďď from various consonants, followed by *y. The former was depalatalised to plain geminate tt in some dialects and was assibilated to ss in others. The latter evolved into an affricate dz in all Greek dialects: -> PG > Homeric > Attic "this much" (Latin ) > PG > Homeric > Attic "middle" (Latin ) Some Greek dialects later underwent yet another round of assibilation. shifted to finally in Attic and Ionic but not in Doric. Doric – Attic-Ionic "he/she places" Romance languages The word "assibilation" itself contains an example of the phenomenon, as it is pronounced . The Classical Latin was pronounced (for example, was pronounced and ). However, in Vulgar Latin, it assibilated to , which can still be seen in Italian: . In French, lenition then gave (like )., which was further palatalized in the English derived words to (like attention ). Most dialects of Quebec French apply a more recent assibilation to all dental plosive consonants immediately before high front vowels and associated semivowels, so that the sequences become pronounced respectively. Assibilation can occur in some varieties of Spanish such as in Ecuador and Mexico. It is closely related to the phonetic term sibilation. Slavic languages Palatalization effects were widespread in the history of Proto-Slavic. In the first palatalization, various consonants were converted into postalveolar fricatives and affricates, while in the second and third palatalizations, the results were alveolar. Some Slavic languages underwent yet another round of palatalisation. In Polish, in particular, dental consonants became alveolo-palatal fricatives and affricates when followed by a front vowel. See also Assimilation (linguistics) References Phonology Phonetics Sound changes