Abstract
The study deals with the sibilant system in the historical German language island Zahre/Sauris situated in the north east of Italy comparing it with the inventory spoken in Lusern/Luserna (Cimbrian). It turns out that features from Old and Middle High German have been preserved. The varieties under investigation still reveal effects of the process of fricative lenition called by Paul (1881 [2007]: 170) “althochdeutsche Spirantenschwachung”. In the variety of Lusern the contrast regarding the place of articulation between postalveolar “shibilants” [ś, ź] and alveolar sibilants [s, z] is also still observable, while it is neutralized in Zahre in all contexts. It is argued that the loss of this qualitative feature in Zahre is connected to the preservation of a fortis-lenis contrast for the fricatives in intersonorant position (after a long vowel or a diphthong).
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