In linguistics, assibilation is a sound change resulting in a sibilant consonant. It is a form of spirantization and is commonly the final phase of palatalization. Arabic A characteristic of Mashreqi varieties of Arabic (particularly Levantine and Egyptian) is to assibilate the interdental consonants of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in certain contexts (defined more culturally than phonotactically). Thus, , pronounced in MSA, becomes (as MSA → Levantine "culture"); , pronounced in MSA, becomes (as MSA → Levantine "guilt"); and , pronounced in MSA, becomes (as MSA → Levantine "lucky"). Diachronically, the phoneme represented by the letter has, in some dialects, experienced assibilation as well. The pronunciation in Classical Arabic is reconstructed to have been or (or perhaps both dialectically); it is cognate to in most other Semitic languages, and it is understood to be derived from that sound in Proto-Semitic. It has experienced extensive change in pronunciation over the centuries, and is pronounced at least six different ways across the assorted varieties of Arabic. A common one is , the result of a process of palatalization starting with Proto-West Semitic , then or , then (a pronunciation still current) and finally (in Levantine and non-Algerian Maghrebi). The last pronunciation is considered acceptable for use in MSA, along with and . Bantu languages In the history of several Bantu groups, including the Southern Bantu languages, the Proto-Bantu consonant *k was palatalised before a close or near-close vowel. Thus, the class 7 noun prefix *kɪ̀- appears in e.g. Zulu as isi-, Sotho as se-, Venda as tshi- and Shona as chi-. Finnic languages Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian and their closest relatives) had changed to . The alternation can be seen in dialectal and inflected word forms: Finnish "to deny" → ~ "s/he denied"; "water" vs. "as water". An intermediate stage is preserved in South Estonian in certain cases: tsiga "pig", vs. Finnish , Standard (North) Estonian . Germanic languages In the High German consonant shift, voiceless stops spirantized to at the end of a syllable. The shift of to (as in English water, German ) is assibilation. Assibilation occurs without palatalization for some speakers of African American Vernacular English in which is alveolarized to when it occurs at the end of a syllable and within a word before another consonant, leading to such pronunciations as the following: Greek In Proto-Greek, the earlier combinations *ty, *thy and *dy assibilated to become alveolar affricates,