1. _Prĕsby̆ter_ became regularly pręstre: § 71, 1. But beside _prĕsby̆ter_ there existed in Vulgar Latin _prebĭter_ (_Einf._, § 140), the syllable _pres-_ being replaced by the Latin prefx _præ-_ or _pre-_, through the analogy of such words as _præbĭtor_, _præposĭtus_. From the accusative _prebĭtĕrum_ we have regularly prevẹire. Pręire is a cross between pręstre and prevẹire.
2. Final sts, in nearly all the territory, was reduced to ts: _finïstis_ ＞ finitz, _hŏstis_ ＞ ǫz (accusative ǫst), _trīstes_ ＞ tritz (sg. trist); but sts was kept in ẹstz ＜ _ĭstos_ and in its derivative aquẹstz. Similarly final scs was generally reduced to cs: ✱_bŭscus_? ＞ (bǫcs) bǫcs (accusative bǫsc), _quĭsquis_ ＞ quẹcs.
3. _Conois_ etc. ＜ _co(g)nōsco_ etc. (beside _conosc_ etc.) are doubtless due to the second and third persons (_conoisses_ _conois_ etc.). Some of the modern eastern dialects have _-isso_ corresponding to _-sca_ (_freisso_ etc.): this seems to indicate an old metathesis of sc in that region.
79. Of the groups not yet discussed, the most important are ct, gd, gn, ks, which show palatalization. It is now generally assumed that the Celts, who had turned their native ct into χt, pronounced Latin ct in the same way when they learned Latin (Meyer-Lübke, _Einf._, § 186), and likewise substituted χs for ks (Meyer-Lübke, _Gram._, I, § 650), and probably χd, χn for gd, gn. The χ was attracted into a palatal spirant by the following dental, and the dental itself was then palatalized. Most philologists explain the development of cl, gl into l´ (cf. § 68) in a similar way. Inasmuch as Indo-European pt had also been changed to χt in Celtic, it is not unlikely that the Celts substituted χt, χs for Latin pt, ps in a few words; the χ replacing p may sometimes have been rounded.
1. To account for palatalization in the non-Celtic parts of southern Gaul, we may assume either that the spirant pronunciation spread from the Celtic to the other regions, or that in the latter the palatalization came about simply through the mutual attraction of the guttural and the dental.
80. The groups will now be discussed in alphabetical order:--
Bc ＞ (✱pc), ptš (before a): ✱_reprŏb(ĭ)cat_ ＞ reprǫpcha.
Brg ＞ rg or urg in _fabrĭca_ ✱_fabrĭga_ ＞ farga faurga. Cf. § 70, Br.