In Indo-European studies, the term s-mobile (/ˈmoʊbᵻliː/; the word is a Latin neuter adjective) designates the phenomenon where a PIE root appears to begin with an *s- which is sometimes but not always present. It is therefore represented in the reflex of the root in some attested derivatives but not others.
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General description
This "movable" prefix s- appears at the beginning of some Indo-European roots, but is absent from other occurrences of the same root. For example, the stem *(s)táwros, perhaps 'bison', gives Latin taurus and Old English steor (Modern English steer), both meaning 'bull'. Both variants existed side by side in PIE, with Germanic preserving both forms as *steuraz and *þeuraz respectively, but Italic, Celtic, Slavic and others all have words for 'bull' which reflect the root without the s. Compare also: Gothic stiur, German Stier, Avestan staora (cattle); but Old Norse þjórr, Greek tauros, Latin taurus, Old Church Slavonic turъ, Lithuanian tauras, Welsh tarw, Old Irish tarb, Oscan turuf and Albanian taroç.
In other cases it is Germanic which preserves only the form without the s mobile. The root *(s)teg-, 'to cover', has descendants English thatch (Old English þeccan), German decken 'cover', Latin tegō 'cover', but Greek stégō and Russian stog. The fact that there is no consistency about which language groups retain the s-mobile in individual cases proves that it is an original Indo-European phenomenon, and not an element added or lost in the later history of particular languages.
Sometimes subsequent developments can treat the forms with and without the s-mobile quite differently. For example, by Grimm's law PIE *p becomes Proto-Germanic f, but the combination *sp is unaffected by this. Thus the root *(s)prek, perhaps meaning 'scatter' has two apparently quite dissimilar derivatives in English: sprinkle (from nasalized form *sprenk-) and freckle (from *prek-). Another such pair is spring and frog, from *(s)preu, 'to jump'.
S-mobile is always followed by another consonant. Typical combinations are with voiceless stops: *(s)p-, *(s)t-, *(s)k-; with liquids and nasals: *(s)l-, *(s)m-, *(s)n-; and rarely: *(s)w-.
Origins
One theory of the origin of the s-mobile is that it was influenced by a suffix to the preceding word; many inflectional suffixes in PIE are reconstructed as having ended in *s, including the nominative singular and accusative plural of nouns. The s-mobile can therefore be seen as an interference between the words, a kind of sandhi development. So for example, while an alternation between *pekyont and *spekyont (both meaning 'they saw') might be difficult to imagine, an alternation between *wlkwoms pekyont and *wlkwoms spekyont ('they saw the wolves' ) is plausible. The two variants would still be pronounced differently, as the double -ss- is distinct from a single -s- (compare English the sink and this sink), but the alternation can now be understood as a simple process of gemination (doubling) or degemination.
This can be understood in two ways.
Further examples
A number of roots beginning in *sl-, *sm-, *sn- look as if they had an s-mobile but the evidence is inconclusive, since several languages (Latin, Greek, Albanian) lost initial s- before sonorants (l, m, n) by regular sound change. Examples include: