JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sun, 15 Mar 2015 09:00:37 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SIBILANT TURMOIL IN MIDDLE SPANISH (1450-1650)TWO decades have passed since the publication of the first volume of Amado Alonso's masterly study of the evolution of Spanish pronunciation from medieval to modern times. A muchneeded revision of that first volume, which required twelve years' effort on the part of the continuators, appeared in 1967 and two years later the second volume, which treats the major sibilant changes and their resultant confusion, was published. The two volumes that have already appeared were prepared by Rafael Lapesa, Alonso's friend and colleague, to whom the Harvard professor entrusted the publication of his work a few short months before his untimely death in 1952. Lapesa has been aided in this undertaking by Maria Josefa Canellada de Zamora and by the members of Men6ndez Pidal's seminar of the University of Madrid. In the following brief note inspired by our careful reading and frequent consultation of Volume I1i of Alonso's work, we intend to comment critically on its content and conclusions and, more important, to present newly discovered material, the observations of Juan de Baraona y de Padilla on the Spanish of his day, four centuries ago.Volume ii of Alonso's work contains Chapters iv, v, and vi plus two Appendices and is a slender volume when compared to the size of Volume I. The three chapters treat historically the s (pp. 12-46), the ceceo-seseo (pp. 47-144), and s, z, and x in final position (pp. 145-174). The two Appendices (pp. 175-249) treat varied aspects of the evolution of Spanish sibilants. Chapters iv, vi, and Amado Alonso, De la pronunciacidn medieval a la moderna, II, ultimado y dispuesto para la imprenta por Rafael Lapesa (Madrid: Gredos, 1969).
