The development of word- and morpheme-initial /x/ in Lower Sorbian

Summary The article is devoted to the development of word- and morpheme initial /x/ in Lower Sorbian, an endangered West Slavic language spoken in Germany. First of all, the Slavic context and general synchronic and diachronic considerations regarding /x/ in the Sorbian languages are presented, based on the previous literature. The analysis of contemporary Lower Sorbian recordings shows that there is a very recent tendency towards a substitution of [x] in this position by a velar stop and, rarely, by [f] or zero. The elimination of the velar fricative from the word- and morpheme onset is due to the contact with German.