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Linguistics > Vowels > Flashcards

Vowels Flashcards

1
Q

What are long vowels in Latin represented by?

A

macron, eg ā, ē, ī, ō, ū

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2
Q

What are short vowels in Latin represented by?

A

breve, eg ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ

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3
Q

What were the three diphthongs in Latin?

A

ae, oe, au

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4
Q

How were the diphthongs in Latin represented?

A

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

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5
Q

What is the source of modern Romance languages?

A

Vulgar Latin

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6
Q

What is aperture?

A

Tongue height

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7
Q

What happened to vowel length in vulgar Latin?

A

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

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8
Q

Which vowels merged to /a/ in Vulgar Latin?

A

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

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9
Q

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

A
  • They retained their original degree of aperture
  • ī continued as /i/
  • ū continued as /u/
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10
Q

Which vowels merged into /e/ in vulgar Latin?

A

ĭ and ē
(short i and long e)

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11
Q

Which vowels merged into /o/ in vulgar Latin?

A

ŭ and ō
(short u and long o)

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12
Q

How could you describe ĕ and ŏ?

A

Short variants of mid-high vowels

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13
Q

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

A
  • In stressed syllables, remained distinct from long counterparts
  • In unstressed syllables, ĕ absorbed into /e/ and ŏ into /o/
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14
Q

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

A

/ɛ/

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15
Q

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

A

/ɔ/

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16
Q

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

A
  • in stressed syllables, ae = /ɛ/ and oe = /e/
  • in unstressed syllables, ae, oe = /e/
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17
Q

What happened to the diphthong au in vulgar Latin?

A

It was reduced to /o/
(later development)

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18
Q

What can be said about final syllables in Latin?

A

They were always unstressed

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19
Q

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

A
  • 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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20
Q

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

A
  • 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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21
Q

What is a hiatus?

A

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

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22
Q

What happened during loss of the hiatus?

A
  • 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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23
Q

What is vowel breaking?

A

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

24
Q

Which vowels underwent vowel breaking?

A

/ε/ and /ɔ/

25
Q

What happened to /ε/ and /ɔ/?

A
  • 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]
26
Q

Comment on ŏ + nasal + consonant

A
  • syllable-final nasal slightly raised the tongue height of /ɔ/
  • this structure escaped diphthongization
27
Q

In which cases did [je] (<ĕ) reduce?

A
  • reduced to [I] before /ʎ/
  • sometimes also before syllable-final /s/
28
Q

In which cases did [we] (<ŏ) reduce?

A
  • reduced to [e]
  • after /l/ or /ɾ/
29
Q

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

A

the palatal semivowel [j] (yod)

30
Q

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

A

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

31
Q

What is metaphony?

A

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

32
Q

Describe metaphony in Spansih

A
  • regressive
  • [j] always came after the vowel that underwent raising
    (not necessarily immediately after)
33
Q

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

A

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

34
Q

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

A
  • (unstressed) front vowels that semivocalised after loss of the hiatus
  • velar or lateral consonants that semivocalised in syllable-final position
35
Q

Did the [j] survive in Old Spanish?

A

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

36
Q

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

A

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

37
Q

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

A

/ε/ and /ɔ/

38
Q

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

A

/a/ and /e/

39
Q

When did metaphony occur for /a/?

A

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

40
Q

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

A

Failure to diphthongize

41
Q

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

A
  • unstressed vowels in initial syllables
  • raised to /i/ and /u/
42
Q

In which other case did metaphony occur?

A

Stressed vowels raised under the influence of final /i/

43
Q

What does intertonic mean?

A

Occurring between stressed syllables

44
Q

How can interethnic or unstressed internal vowels be described?

A
  • occupy a position of relative weakness in words
  • prime candidates for syncope
45
Q

What is syncope?

A

loss

46
Q

What did loss of the intertonic vowel often trigger?

A

Readjustment of the consonant cluster produced by the syncope

47
Q

Which intertonic vowel survived into modern Spanish?

A

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

48
Q

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

A
  • all had been lost
  • two distinct phases of this
49
Q

What was the first phase of intertonic vowel syncope?

A
  • phonologically conditioned
  • only occurred when vowel was adjacent to /ɾ/ or /l/ or, occasionally, /s/
50
Q

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

A

Appendix Probi

51
Q

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

A

generalised loss of intertonic vowel

52
Q

What is apocope?

A

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

53
Q

How many waves of apocope were there?

A

2

54
Q

What happened during the first wave of apocope?

A

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

55
Q

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

A
  • didn’t lead to many permanent changes
  • not phonologically conditioned
  • occurred after almost any consonant
56
Q

What were the lasting effects of the second wave of apocope

A
  • in small number of words, final /e/ permanently lost
  • eg. mil ‘thousand’ and piel ‘skin’
57
Q

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

A
  • 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)

Linguistics (3 decks)

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