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Sound laws · Law 7 · Consonants

Spanish initial F- becomes h- (silent)

F- (before a vowel)

Spanish

h- (silent); f- kept before ue and r

French

f- kept

Italian

f- kept

Portuguese

f- kept

Romanian

f- kept

Catalan

f- kept

What happened

Starting in northern Castile, the f at the start of a word weakened to a breathy [h], probably as the lips relaxed and only the friction of the breath remained; whether Basque contact played a part is debated. Writers began spelling h in the 15th century, and the [h] itself fell silent in standard Spanish during the 16th. Before the glide of ue and before r, the lips held on and f survived. Spanish is alone here: Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian keep f- as firmly as French and Italian.

Examples

LatinItalianSpanishFrenchPortugueseRomanianCatalanEnglish relative
FĪLIUM (fr. from nom. FĪLIUS)‘son’figliohijofilsfilhofiufillfilial
FACERE‘to do, make’farehacerfairefazerfacefer
FARĪNAM‘flour’farinaharinafarinefarinhafăinăfarina
FOLIAM‘leaf (ro foaie 'sheet')’fogliahojafeuillefolhafoaiefullafoliage
FORMĪCAM‘ant’formicahormigafourmiformigafurnicăformiga
FĪLUM‘thread’filohilofilfiofirfilfilament
FOCUM‘fire (f kept before ue)’fuocofuegofeufogofocfocfocus
FRONTEM‘forehead (f kept before r)’frontefrentefrontfrontefruntefrontfront

Decoder

Spanish h- at the start of a word? Swap in f- for every other sister: hacer → faire, fare, fazer, fer; harina → farine, farina, farinha. And Spanish fu-, fr- simply match the sisters.

Exceptions

Learned words keep f, giving doublets: hierro/férreo, hablar/fábula, hoja/folio. Before ie the outcome varies (fiesta but hierro), and fe (FIDEM) kept its f. Andalusian and some Latin American speech still aspirates the h in a few words (cante jondo, from hondo < FUNDUM).

Watch it happen: FĪLIUM

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