Old Spanish Word Changes

Question 1

NOCE > nuez

Answer 1

???

Question 2

SALICE > sauze, sauce (esp. mod)

Answer 2

The /-l/ changed to a vocalic pronunciation, generating a /au/ . Because this dipthong was produced relatively late in this word and CALICE (cauce) the form was able to survive.

The combination of /k/ and /e/ resulted in the palatalization of /k/, realized as /ts/, written as a C or a C with cedilla, which eventually was written as a z (by the fifteenth century). In syllable final position, there was no contrast between written ‘z’ and ‘c.ç’ In the sixteenth century, as a result of devoicing, this was made into a alveolar fricative /s/, and was written as ‘c’

The final “E” remains because the word already had a consonant group before -e until quite late.

Question 3

LUGUMINE > lugumbre

Answer 3

Por disimilación, insertan una “B,” igual que lo que pasó con HUMERU > hombro. Iban de min >mir>mr>mbr

Question 4

MULIERE> mujer

Answer 4

The accent fell on the second to last “E” in MULIERE. Due to the instability of the hiatus in Latin, the accent was transferred to the more open of the two syllables, resulting in /muljɛre/, which eventually due to palatization of the /lj/ combination led to /x/–mujer.

Question 5

SCHOLA > escuela

Answer 5

S+ consonant transition: because the second consonant required maximum closure, speakers of Latin came to hear it as syllable-initial, preceded by an “anamolous” semi-syllable consisting of /s/. This difficulty would be particularly noticeable in any word after a consonant, such as AD SCHOLAM. This was resolved by changing any s + cons. initial word into a full syllable by adding an initial vowel (originally an I, which later changed into an /e/).