Section II Descriptive Lingusitics Questions

Question 1

Provide a commentary on the changes to the vowel system that occurred between Latin and Modern Spanish. Provide supporting examples from other Romance languages as appropriate.

Answer 1

Cambios:
Pérdida de la cantidad vocálica como rasgo fonológico
Acento melódico
Fusión de vocales (tónicas y átonas)
Datación: latín–latín tardío (II a.C.–V d.C.)
Ī
I
Ē
E
Ā
A
O
Ō
U
Ū
Había diez fonemas y 7 alófonos
Las vocales abiertas se abren para diptongizar. Habían 3 diptongos: /oi/ /ai/, and /au/ escritos como OE, AE y AU. (I a.c.)
AE /ai/ monoptongizó para formar e: (mid-vowel), which eventually lost its quantitative qualities to become simply e.
/OE/ también monophthongized to ‘e’. /AU/ monophthongized to /o/. Length ceased to be a distinctive feature of Latin around the fall of the Roman Empire, which left only the quality of the vowels as a distinguisher. The short /i/ and /u/ likely became phonologically identical to the long /e:/ and /o:/ in Gaul, Spain

Question 2

Describe development of the sibilant system in Castillian Spanish.

Answer 2

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