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I found the following etymology of the word "ambassador" on Wiktionary.

From Middle English ambassadore, from Anglo-Norman ambassadeur, ambassateur, from Old Italian ambassatore, ambassadore, from Old Occitan ambaisador (“ambassador”), derivative of ambaissa (“service, mission, errand”), from Medieval Latin ambasiator, from Gothic (andbahti, “service, function”), from Proto-Germanic *ambahtiją (“service, office”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *ambahtaz (“servant”), from Gaulish ambaxtos ("servant"; also the source of Latin ambactus (“vassal, servant, dependent”)), from Proto-Celtic *ambaxtos (“servant”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi-h₂eǵ- (“drive around”), from *h₂m̥bʰi- (“around”) + *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”).

I'm wondering how Gothic (andbahti) became Medieval Latin ambasiator phonetically, especially how h in andbahti became s in ambasiator. I have read some books but still couldn't find a specific reason for this sound change.

Here is my personal explanation of this sound change:

This is a sound change of partial assimilation. h changed into s retaining its own fricative feature and gaining the alveolar feature from t. Then epenthetic vowels (between s and t) were added.

Still, I am not sure if my the explanation is correct. If yes, are there any other sound changes similar to this one?

Yet, I am also not sure whether h actually changed into s historically.

Edit: Thanks for the answers below, really appreciate them!

Chickly
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2 Answers2

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I think a likly path to the "s" is through "kt" (as in ambactus) which then palatalized before j. A variety of spellings are apparently found in this word and related words such as ambascia: single s, double ss, x, sc, c.

It's a bit hard for me to find similar examples of the outcome of Latin -cti- in Romance languages, but perhaps the -ss- in French cuisson, which is supposed to be from Latin coctio, is analogous.

The t in -ator is originally part of the Latin agent noun ending, not part of the stem found in /ambaxtos.

brass tacks
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  • An even more likely path, I think, is -(h)tj-, with no /k/. Since /kt/ > /xt/ (optionally) already in Gaulish, and /xt/ > /ht/ in various Germanic languages (where the -ja- derivative was created), the form borrowed form was likely /ambahtja/, with typical Romance loss of /h/, so /ambatja/ or perhaps /ambatːja/. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 29 '21 at 08:23
  • @JanusBahsJacquet: The thing that makes me question a derivation from intervocalic /tj/ is that I think the usual reflex of that in French is voiced /z/, as in raison < rationem. – brass tacks Jan 09 '22 at 08:40
  • That’s for inherited /tʲ/. The development /tʲ > tsʲ > dzʲ/ took place in Common Western Romance; the loss of the palatal quality (with compensatory insertion of /j/ in the previous syllable before voiced palatalised consonants) happened later, on the way to OF. Assuming that *ambahtja was borrowed from Germanic some time between WR and OF (say some time around AD 600–1000), the input at the relevant time would have an unvoiced /t(ː)sʲ/ and the expected OF outcome would be /ts > s/. The forms with /ʃ/ are seemingly through Occitan, which I don’t know enough about to comment on. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 09 '22 at 10:23
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The shift of /k/ to /h/ is regular in Germanic (assuming that the borrowing from Celtic to Germanic is very old: i.e. pre-Grimm). But I do not see why the Romance forms should derive from Gothic, rather than directly from Celtic. The development of -kt- to Italian -sc- and then to French -ss- does not seem problematic.

fdb
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  • Where does /kt/ give /ʃ/ in Italian? I would expect it to yield /tː/ in general āctum > atto), or /ts/ before /j/ (āctiōnem > azione), but not /ʃ/. The Occitan-ish area would be a more likely place for such an outcome, but I don’t think you can skip the Germanic stage quite so easily – as far as I know, the -ja- derivative isn’t known in Celtic, but was created in Germanic, and it must be that which sired the Romance forms. The /kt ~ pt/ > /xt/ development also took place in Celtic (it’s attested in both forms in Gaulish), though, so the loan doesn’t have to be early. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 29 '21 at 00:04