Prefix Allomorphy and the Phonologisation of s‐Deletion in Latin

Latin s ‐final prefixes show extensive allomorphy, which can be ascribed to different diachronic processes such as the drive to maintain contrast, analogical attraction and a sound change that deleted s before voiced consonants. We argue that the latter sound change led to three different phonologisation processes due to distributional imbalance in the relevant segments as well as a simultaneous sound change that also affected s . The evidence for the competing phonologisation processes is provided by the different alternations displayed by the s ‐final prefixes.