ð, þ were pronounced by the Latins as d, t: ✱waiðanjan ＞ ✱wadanyāre ＞ Pr. gazanhar (It. guadagnare), þrëscan ＞ ✱trescāre ＞ Pr. trescar.
H, at the beginning of a word, was lost in the greater part of the Empire, including southern Gaul: hapja ＞ ✱apya ＞ Pr. apcha. H between vowels was lost in some words and replaced by kk in others: spëhôn ＞ Pr. espiar, fëhu ＞ Pr. fęu, jëhan ＞ ✱yekkīre ＞ Pr. gequir. Ht was regularly replaced by tt: slahta ＞ ✱sclatta ＞ Pr. esclata; but wahta, perhaps borrowed at a different period, became Pr. gaita.
K, in southern Gaul, did not take the palatal pronunciation before front vowels: skërnon ＞ Pr. esquernir, skina ＞ Pr. esquina, skiuhan ＞ Pr. esquivar, ✱rîk-ĭtia ＞ Pr. riquẹza; only the derivatives of Franko (doubtless Latinized early) show palatalization, as ✱Francia ＞ Pr. Fransa. G, however, seems to have been palatalized: gîga ＞ Pr. giga, geisla ＞ Pr. giscle. Before a, in words introduced early, k and g were treated like Latin c and g: kausjan ＞ Pr. cauzir chauzir, gâhi ＞ Pr. gai iai; see § [11], (1).
W was vigorously pronounced, and, through reinforcement of its velar element, came to be sounded gw: warjan ＞ ✱warīre gwarīre ＞ Pr. garir, wërra ＞ ✱węrra gwęrra ＞ Pr. guęrra.
57. Greek ζ, θ, κ, φ, χ did not exactly correspond to any Latin consonants:—
Z, whatever may have been its original pronunciation, received in Vulgar Latin the value dy, which then, like any other dy, became y: ✱zelōsus (from ζῆλος) = dyelọsus yelọsus ＞ Pr. gelọs. The infinitive ending -ίζειν, introduced in such words as βαπτίζειν, ＞ baptizāre = bapti(d)yāre, became very common in the form -įdyāre -įyāre, and was used to make new verbs: wërra + ίζειν ＞ ✱werrįdyāre gwerrįyāre ＞ Pr. guerrẹiar.
θ, in the popular speech of Rome, was replaced by t: similarly χ was replaced by c: σπαθή ＞ spatha = spata; χορδή ＞ chŏrda = cǫrda.
κ was apparently intermediate in sound between Latin c and g; it was generally replaced by the former, but sometimes by the latter: κατά ＞ cata, κυβερνᾰν ＞ gubernare.
φ, in Greek, was in early times (perhaps until the 4th century of our era) a strongly explosive p; it then developed into f. In words borrowed by the Romans in the early period it was replaced by p; in later words it was sounded f: κόλαφος ＞ cŏlăphus = cǫlapus, φασίολος ＞ phaseŏlus faseŏlus.
58. The fate of all these consonants in Provençal depended largely on their position in the word: we must therefore distinguish initial, medial, and final consonants. In a general way, the first tended to remain unchanged, the second to weaken, the third to disappear. Furthermore we must separate single consonants from consonant groups: the latter resisted change better than the former; but a group consisting of dissimilar elements tended to assimilate them.