Vowels Flashcards by Hannah Elizabeth

What are long vowels in Latin represented by?

macron, eg ā, ē, ī, ō, ū

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What are short vowels in Latin represented by?

breve, eg ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ

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What were the three diphthongs in Latin?

ae, oe, au

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How were the diphthongs in Latin represented?

ae [aj], oe [oj] and au [aw]

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What is the source of modern Romance languages?

Vulgar Latin

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What is aperture?

Tongue height

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What happened to vowel length in vulgar Latin?

The differences in vowel length were either lost or replaced by differences in aperture

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Which vowels merged to /a/ in Vulgar Latin?

ă and ā
- the two most open vowels
- length contrast lost

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What happened to the pronunciation of ī and ū in Vulgar Latin?

They retained their original degree of aperture
ī continued as /i/
ū continued as /u/

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Which vowels merged into /e/ in vulgar Latin?

ĭ and ē
(short i and long e)

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Which vowels merged into /o/ in vulgar Latin?

ŭ and ō
(short u and long o)

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How could you describe ĕ and ŏ?

Short variants of mid-high vowels

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What happened to the short variants of mid-high vowels in Vulgar Latin?

In stressed syllables, remained distinct from long counterparts
In unstressed syllables, ĕ absorbed into /e/ and ŏ into /o/

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How is short e in stressed syllables represented in vulgar Latin?

/ɛ/

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How is short o in stressed syllables represented in vulgar Latin?

/ɔ/

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How were the diphthongs ae and oe pronounced in spoken Latin?

in stressed syllables, ae = /ɛ/ and oe = /e/
in unstressed syllables, ae, oe = /e/

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What happened to the diphthong au in vulgar Latin?

It was reduced to /o/
(later development)

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What can be said about final syllables in Latin?

They were always unstressed

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What mergers happened in final syllable position from Latin to old Spanish?

Merger of /o/ and /u/
Merger (later) of /e/ and /I/
Only /a/, /o/ and /e/ survive in that position in old Spanish

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Why does /I/ appear in final syllable position in Spanish?
(when it goes against the merger that happened)

What is now the final syllable was formerly the penultimate syllable and was stress-bearing
Hence not subject to the mergers that affected unstressed final syllables

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What is a hiatus?

When adjacent vowels are in different syllables (with no intervening consonant)

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What happened during loss of the hiatus?

when vowels identical in pronunciation, reduction to a single vowel
unstressed prevocalic front vowels (/e/ or /i) reduced to palatal semivowel [j]
unstressed prevocalic back vowels (/o/ or /u/) reduced to labial-velar semivowel [w]

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What is vowel breaking?

The process in which a pure vowel evolves into a diphthong (or a triphthong)

Which vowels underwent vowel breaking?

/ε/ and /ɔ/

What happened to /ε/ and /ɔ/?

- came to be preceded by a homorganic semivowel ([j] and [w]) - resulted in diphthongs [je] and [wo] - [je] survives unamended in modern Spanish (in majority of cases) - [wo] evolved to [we]

Comment on ŏ + nasal + consonant

- syllable-final nasal slightly raised the tongue height of /ɔ/ - this structure escaped diphthongization

In which cases did [je] (<ĕ) reduce?

- reduced to [I] before /ʎ/ - sometimes also before syllable-final /s/

In which cases did [we] (<ŏ) reduce?

- reduced to [e] - after /l/ or /ɾ/

What has been involved in a large number of sound changes in Spanish?

the palatal semivowel [j] (yod)

What was the principal effect of the yod in the vowel system?

Raising of a stressed vowel's tongue height/aperture (due to the very high tongue position of [j] itself)

What is metaphony?

Any process that leads to the approximation of one vowel's quality to that of another

Describe metaphony in Spansih

- regressive - [j] always came after the vowel that underwent raising (not necessarily immediately after)

Which vowels were capable of being affected by metaphony of the yod and what did they raise to?

/a, ε, ɔ, e, o/ /e, e, o, I, u/ (Each raised by one degree of aperture)

What are the sources of the [j] which triggered metaphony?

- (unstressed) front vowels that semivocalised after loss of the hiatus - velar or lateral consonants that semivocalised in syllable-final position

Did the [j] survive in Old Spanish?

in most cases no - elided altogether - absorbed into an adjacent consonant

What is a general rule of the disappearance of the [j]?

The earlier it disappeared, the weaker its effect was in terms of causing vowels to raise

Which were the most consistently affected vowels (by metaphony of the [j]?

/ε/ and /ɔ/

Which were the least consistently affected vowels (by metaphony of the [j]?

/a/ and /e/

When did metaphony occur for /a/?

If the [j] was in the same syllable as the /a/

How can we infer the /ε/ > /e/ and /ɔ/ > /o/ changes?

Failure to diphthongize

Which parallel phenomenon affected /e/ and /o/ though metaphony?

- unstressed vowels in initial syllables - raised to /i/ and /u/

In which other case did metaphony occur?

Stressed vowels raised under the influence of final /i/

What does intertonic mean?

Occurring between stressed syllables

How can interethnic or unstressed internal vowels be described?

- occupy a position of relative weakness in words - prime candidates for syncope

What is syncope?

loss

What did loss of the intertonic vowel often trigger?

Readjustment of the consonant cluster produced by the syncope

Which intertonic vowel survived into modern Spanish?

/a/ - highest degree of sonority (i.e. acoustic intensity)

What happened to all intertonic vowels (except /a/) by the end of the Early Middle Ages?

- all had been lost - two distinct phases of this

What was the first phase of intertonic vowel syncope?

- phonologically conditioned - only occurred when vowel was adjacent to /ɾ/ or /l/ or, occasionally, /s/

What is the name of the document that tells us a great deal about sound change?

Appendix Probi

What was the second phase of the syncope of intertonic vowels?

generalised loss of intertonic vowel

What is apocope?

omission of one of more sounds or syllable from the end of a word

How many waves of apocope were there?

What happened during the first wave of apocope?

Permanent loss of final /e/ after in vocalic dental and alveolar consonants (except in enclitics eg pronoun le)

What happened in the other, less important wave of apocope?

- didn't lead to many permanent changes - not phonologically conditioned - occurred after almost any consonant

What were the lasting effects of the second wave of apocope

- in small number of words, final /e/ permanently lost - eg. mil 'thousand' and piel 'skin'

Describe what happened to words like mil 'thousand', él 'he' and piel 'skin' in terms of apocope

- change occurred in second wave - originally were disyllable with internal geminate - geminate lateral lenited to /ʎ/ - this depalatalised as a by-product of apocope (Spanish phonetics disallow /ʎ/ in word-final position)