Sound laws · Law 20 · Clusters

S + consonant at the start of a word

S + consonant (initial)

Spanish

es-

French

é- (from es-, s lost)

Italian

s- (kept; takes lo, gli)

Portuguese

es-

Romanian

s- (kept)

Catalan

es-

What happened

Initial s + consonant was hard to start a word with after a consonant, so speakers added a vowel before it, already visible in late imperial inscriptions (spellings like ISPIRITUM, ISCOLA). Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and French generalized es-; French later lost the s before the consonant (see circumflex), leaving é-. Italian and Romanian keep the bare cluster, which is why Italian needs the special articles lo and gli (lo studente).

Examples

Latin	Italian	Spanish	French	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan	English relative
STELLAM‘star’	stella	estrella	étoile	estrela	stea	estrella	stellar
SCRĪBERE‘to write’	scrivere	escribir	écrire	escrever	scrie	escriure	scribe
SCHOLAM‘school’	scuola	escuela	école	escola	—	escola	school
SPATHAM‘broadsword’	spada	espada	épée	espada	—	espasa
SPONSUM‘betrothed → husband’	sposo	esposo	époux	esposo	—	espòs	spouse
SPĪNAM‘thorn (pt espinha 'fishbone')’	spina	espina	épine	espinha	—	espina	spine

Decoder

Spanish, Portuguese or Catalan es- or French é- + consonant? Drop the vowel for Italian and Romanian: escribir, écrire → scrivere, scrie. French é- often needs an s back: épine → espina, spina.

Exceptions

Later learned words keep a bare s- in French (spécial, statue, scolaire), and Spanish adds e- even to new loans (estrés, esnob, eslogan), as Portuguese and Catalan do in speech. Italian kept a prosthetic i- after a consonant in older usage (in Isvizzera, per iscritto). Romanian școală is a Slavic loan, not SCHOLAM inherited.

Watch it happen: SPATHAM

What happened

Examples

Decoder

Exceptions

In your word bank