OS. medial [s] became [x] before [j], [w]; [-s{jw}-] > [-x{jw}-]

OS. medial [s] became [x] before [j], [w]; [-s{jw}-] > [-x{jw}-]

In (Old) Sindarin medial [s] became [x] before semi-vowels y, w [j, w]. There is pair of a very clear examples of this sound change in linguistic notes from the late 1950s:

The (archaic) aspirate mutated form a chwath (from *as-wath) also implies this sound changes (PE17/41). As these examples indicate, this was an early change, occurring even before long final vowels were shortened, and perhaps in parallel to the initial developments whereby initial [s] unvoiced following consonants. There seems to be at least one example of a similar change in Noldorin:

David Salo gave a different explanation of this word in Gateway to Sindarin, positing that [h] became [x] after [i] (GS/§4.101), but the Sindarin evidence given above was not available when Salo did his research.

Order (01600)

Before 01700 long final vowels were shortened lisyā > liχı̯ā > leχı̯ > leich > S. laich PE17/148

Phonetic Rule Elements

[-sj-] > [-xj-]
[-sw-] > [-xw-]

Phonetic Rule Examples

lisjā > lixjā -sj- > -xj- lisyā > liχı̯ā > leχı̯ > leich > S. laich ✧ PE17/148
lisji > lixji -sj- > -xj- lisyā > S. lîch ✧ PE17/148
teswā > texwā -sw- > -xw- teswā > teχwā > teχw̯ > S. tewch ✧ PE17/148

ON. medial [s] became [x] before [j], [w]; [-s{jw}-] > [-x{jw}-]

See OS. medial [s] became [x] before [j], [w] for discussion.

Phonetic Rule Elements

[-sj-] > [-xj-]
[-sw-] > [-xw-]

Phonetic Rule Examples

pisja > pixja -sj- > -xj- ᴹ√PIS > N. peich ✧ Ety/PIS