However, metathesis of original [pj] to [jp] is seen in forms of two Spanish verbs, saber 'to know' and caber 'to fit': the effects of this metathesis are Palatalization in the Romance languages encompasses various historical sound changes which caused consonants to develop a palatal articulation or secondary articulation, as well as certain further developments such as affrication. It resulted in the creation of several consonants that had not existed in Classical Latin, such as the Italian [t͡s d͡z ʃ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ɲ ʎ]. Certain types of palatalization a Fir… In some cases, the spelling of palatalized consonants simply remained the same as that of the Latin sounds or sequences that they originated from. For instance, in Spanish ⟨ll⟩ represents the palatal lateral [ʎ] (which often developed from Latin ⟨ll⟩, as in castillo [kasˈtiʎo] < castellum) and ⟨ñ⟩ (originally an abbreviation of ⟨nn⟩) represents the palatal nasal [ɲ] (which often developed from Latin /nn/, as in caña [ˈkaɲa] < canna). Spellings like these could be extended to words where palatalized consonants… Initial /j/ appears to have remained a palatal glide in Southern Italian, some dialects of Sardinian, and (in some contexts) Castilian, which suggests that its fortition to an affricate or fricative may not been complete in Late Latin or Proto-Romance. However, it is possible that Southern Italian and Castilian did not conserve the original value of Latin /j-/ but rather redeveloped the glide via later lenition (note that intervocalic /ɡj/ shows the same outcome). Some outcomes of /dj ɡj/ and /j/: Southern Italian dialects show [j] for all three. Spanish shows a split outcome for Latin word-initial /j/. This can be seen in French ai from habeo and dois from debeo, or Spanish haya from habeam and (archaic) foya from foveam. In a larger set of words, [βj] was initially retained but underwent diverse developments in different Romance languages. ==== Gemination ==== In Italian, intervocalic [pj βj mj] show gemination of the labial consonant, resulting in [ppj bbj mmj]. Examples include sapiat > [ˈsappja], rabiam > rabbia [ˈrabbja], habeat > abbia, caveam > gabbia, vindemiam > vendemmia. It appears that these changes occurred between Old and Medieval Portuguese, at a later date than the palatalization and 'metathesis' of /sj/, /zj/ and /rj/ in Hispano-Romance: metathesis of /s z r/ + /j/ is found regularly in both Spanish and Portuguese, and was followed by a shift from [aj] to [ej] that can be seen in Portuguese queijo, eira, queixar, whereas metathesis of labial + /j/ occurs regularly in Portuguese but not in Spanish, and affected Portuguese words show unshifted /aj/. This is shown by the following examples: apium > apio 'celery', rabiam > rabia 'anger, rage'; rubeum > rubio 'blond', novium > novio 'boyfriend'. However, metathesis of original [pj] to [jp] is seen in forms of two Spanish verbs, saber 'to know' and caber 'to fit': the effects of this metathesis are seen in forms like sepa (< sapiat) and quepo (< capio). Wireback argues that in Spanish, unlike in Portuguese, there was an abrupt inversion from /pj/ to /jp/ in these verb forms as a result of morphological analogy with vowel + /j/ sequences found in the inflectional paradigms of other verbs. The earliest evidence for the merger of /pl fl kl/ to one (palatalized) sound is found in eleventh-century documents with forms like ⟨flosa⟩ for clausa, ⟨flano⟩ for plano, and ⟨aflamaront⟩ for acclamaverunt. The results of /bl ɡl/ are In Ladin, intervocalic /kl/ was conserved in the dialects of Sol and Non; voiced to /ɡl/ in the dialect of Fodom; and (perhaps under Germanic influence) turned to /dl/ in the dialects of Gardena, Badia, and Mareo. == /ll nn/ and initial /l n/ == === /ll l-/ === Latin /ll/ was palatalized to [ʎ] in Asturian, Leonese, Spanish, Aragonese, and Catalan. This appears to have been a relatively late development. In some areas this [ʎ] merged with an identical outcome of Latin /lj/ (and /kl ɡl/). In Catalan, as well as some western dialects of Asturian, word-initial /l/ was also palatalized to [ʎ]. In other western dialects of Asturian, and also of Leonese, there is a variety of palatalized outcomes collectively dubbed the 'che vaqueira'. The earliest evidence for the palatalization of /l-/ is found in tenth-century documents from the Kingdom of León, which show forms like ⟨lliueram⟩ and ⟨llexastis⟩ for libram and laxavistis. === /nn n-/ === Latin /nn/ was palatalized in much the same area as /ll/. Cf. annum 'year' > Astur-Leonese a[ɲ]u, Spanish a[ɲ]o, Aragonese a[ɲ]o, and Catalan a[ɲ]. Palatalization of word-initial /n/ to [ɲ] is also found in Astur-Leonese. Spellings like these could be extended to words where palatalized consonants had other etymological origins, as in Spanish llama 'flame' < flamma and señor 'mister' < seniorem. In some cases, a spelling convention passed beyond its language of origin, as in the use of ⟨ll⟩ for [ʎ] in Galician (cf. filla [ˈfiʎa] < filiam), despite Galician not experiencing a general change of Latin /ll/ to /ʎ/. Similarly, the historic palatalization of /k ɡ/ before front vowels is responsible for the letters ⟨c g⟩ standing for various 'soft' sounds when written before a front vowel (in French and Portuguese [s ʒ], in Italian and Romanian [t͡ʃ d͡ʒ]). Latin ⟨z⟩, originally limited to words of Greek origin, became generalized as a means of representing [d͡z], thus for instance Old Spanish fazer [haˈd͡zeɾ] < facere. In Italian the same spelling was also applied not only to [d͡z] but also to [t͡s] (despite the ambiguity), as in pozzo [ˈpott͡so] < puteum. In Iberia the letter ⟨ç⟩ (originally a variant form of ⟨z⟩) came to be used for [t͡s], as in Old Galician-Portuguese praça [ˈpɾat͡sa] < plateam; this practice also spread into France and Italy. The grapheme ⟨ç⟩ came to be reinterpreted as a version of ⟨c⟩ with a diacritic marking its 'soft' pronunciation in contexts where it would otherwise be pronounced 'hard' (i.e.