Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2008
An examination of documents reflecting the change in late Middle High German and Early New High German of <s> to <sch> initially before a sonorant shows that it can be described as a “processual change,” one that affects one environment after another in a regular fashion. This change occurred first before a lateral; thereafter it was extended to nasals—alveolar then labial—and finally to the labial glide. After the late MHG merger of <s> with <z> following a vowel, <s> came to stand in complementary distribution with <sch>. The processual change took place by a process of “phonetic analogy,” whereby <s> before a lateral was gradually replaced by the alveopalatal on the basis of a relation of acoustic-auditory similarity with strident plus trill. The remainder of the procession proceeded in a similar manner.