A History of the Romance Vowel Systems through Paradigmatic Reconstruction

177 Pages·1976·12.522 MB·English

by  Thaddeus Ferguson

JANUA LINGUARUM
STUDIA MEMORIAE
NICOLAI VAN WIJK DEDICATA
edenda curai
C. H. VAN SCHOONEVELD
Indiana University
Series Practica, 176
TO MY MOTHER
A HISTORY OF
THE ROMANCE VOWEL SYSTEMS
THROUGH PARADIGMATIC
RECONSTRUCTION
by
THADDEUS FERGUSON
Columbia University
1976
MOUTON
THE HAGUE • PARIS
© Copyright 1976
Mouton & Co. B.V., Publishers, The Hague
No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm,
or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.
ISBN 90 279 3354 5
Printed in Hungary
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since this study was originally undertaken as a Columbia University doctoral disserta-
tion, I can do no less than to extend due recognition to those scholars who supervised
it from its inception to its present form: to Professor Robert Austerlitz, who, as
director of the dissertation, insisted on the highest standards at all times and whose
constructive criticism has brought a measure of improvement to virtually every page
of this work; to Professor Fredrick H. Jungemann, whose generous expenditure of
time and effort far exceeded the call of duty; and to Professor Mario A. Pei, who
graciously shared with me his unrivaled knowledge of the entire field of Romance
philology. These three men deserve much of the credit for whatever there may
be of value in this study; indeed, they are largely responsible for the training without
which I could not have undertaken the project atall. I should also like to take this oppor-
tunity to thank Professor Lawton P. G. Peckham and Professor Joseph L. Malone,.
both of whom read the entire text and made a number of perceptive observations,
some of which are reflected in the final version. In addition, congratulations are due
to Mr. Ronald Stark for his expert typing of a difficult manuscript.
The major portion of Chapter 10 first appeared in Studies in Honor of Mario A. Pei
(Chapel Hill, 1972). I wish to thank North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages
and Literatures for permission to reprint this material.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 5
Apparatus 9
Introduction
0.1. Aim 11
0.2. Latin and Proto-Romance 13
0.3. Structural Linguistics and Romance Historical Phonology: Some Pre-
vious Studies 14
0.4. Methodology 18
PART I: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PROTO-ROMANCE VOWEL PARADIGM
1. Preliminary Survey of Modern Romance Vowel Patterning 25
2. The Proto-Romance System of Stressed Vowels 37
3. The Proto-Romance System of Unstressed Vowels 70
4. The Proto-Romance Diphthong */aw/ 79
5. The Philological Evidence 85
PART II: RISING DIPHTHO NGIZ ATION AND MET APHONY IN ROMANCE
6. The Two Prototypes of Stressed Vowel Development 95
7. A Theory on the Diachronic Relationship between Rising Diphthongization
and Metaphony 123
8. Sample Reconstruction: The Parallel Evolution of Spanish and Portuguese
Stressed Mid Vowels 131
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8 CONTENTS
PART III: PATTERNED FALLING DIPHTHONGIZATION
AND THE FRONT ROUNDED VOWEL SERIES
9. The Two Zones of Patterned Falling Diphthongization 139
10. Sample Reconstruction : The Evolution of the Stressed Vowel System of
Vegliote 149
11. Conclusion
11.1. The Structure and Evolution of the Pro to-Romance Vowel Paradigm:
Summary 164
11.2. The Question of Regional Isoglosses in Pro to-Romance 172
Bibliography 175
APPARATUS
(1 j. Stress is indicated by /'/ before the stressed syllable; e.g., Central Italian /'par lo/
"I speak", /par '1 <?/ "he spoke".
(2). Stress will not be indicated for standard French. It will be understood that the
stress falls on the final syllable of isolated words of more than one syllable; e.g.,
/sa vSj = [sa 'v5] "soap".
(3). The mid-close ~ mid-open distinctions for standard French /e/ and ¡of will
not be indicated here in phonemic transcription except where absolutely necessary,
as in certain minimal pairs like fzi re/ "I shall go" ~ /zi r?/ "I would go", /zon/ "fast"
(noun) ~ /ZQD/ "young". The contrast /a/ ~ ¡A/, as in French /pat/ "paw" ~ /pat/
"dough, paste", will likewise be considered exceptional, and /a/ alone will be used to
denote the vowel of maximum aperture in standard French.
(4). The palatal and back labial (or labio-velar) glides are consistently transcribed
here as /y/ and /w/ respectively, as in Spanish /byen/ "well", /'bwe no/ "good" m. sg.
The front labial (or labio-palatal) glide is transcribed as /w/, as in French /kwis/
"thigh".
(5). The symbols /./ and IJ are used to denote a difference of a single degree
of aperture between vowels which are otherwise similar in articulation; e.g., mid-
close /e/ in Central Italian /'pe lo/ "hair" vs. mid-open /?/ in Central Italian /'gr? ve/
"heavy, grievous".
(6). The symbol denotes a vowel in open syllable, as in the case of Spanish and
Central Italian /a | / in /'ka TO/ "dear" m. sg. The symbol | denotes a vowel in closed
syllable, as in the case of Spanish and Central Italian /a [/ in /'kar ne/ "meat".
(7). Subscript numerals are used in transcribing vocoids which enter into multiple
sets of correspondences with vocoids or other phonic units in the sound system of
another language; e.g., Logudorese /ii/ corresponds to Central Italian /if, as in Log.
/'fi lu/:C. Ital. /'fi lo/ "thread"; while Logudorese /i / corresponds to Central Italian
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/e/, as in Log. /'pi ra/:C. Ital. /'pe ra/ "pear".
(8). The symbol /'/ is used to indicate palatalization, as in Central Italian /'fi Yof
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