Phonetic shifts of Latin hereditary words in Romanian
In the following, the phonetic shifts of Latin hereditary words in Romanian are shown, whereby it should always be noted that all modern Romance languages arose from the Vulgar Latin spoken in everyday life , while classical Latin was a high-level language that was used on official occasions.
Towards Proto-Romanian
Palatalization
In Vulgar Latin the short postponed / e / and / i / for semi-vowel / j / when a second vowel followed. Later palatalized this / j / a following coronal or velar . With dentals , the result depends on whether the word stress precedes or follows. This led to the following phenomena in New Romanian :
- after Dental:
- tonal:
- Latin puteum > * pútju > arum. puțu > rum. puț 'shaft, well'
- lat. hordeum > * órdju > arum. ordzu > rum. orz 'wheat'
- pre-clay:
- lat. rōgātiōnem > * rogatjóne > * rogačone > rum. rugăciune 'prayer'
- vlat. deosum > * djósu > * džosu > rum. jos 'low, deep'
- tonal:
- after another consonant:
- Latin socium > * sókju > arum. soțu > rum. soț 'husband'
- lat. cāseum > * kasju > rum. caș 'cream cheese, quark'
- lat. vīnea > * vinja > * viɲe > rum. vie / vije / 'vineyard'
- lat. mulierem > * muljere > * muʎere > rum. muiere / mujere / 'woman'
Before o , t and d become affricates and alveolar: This shift is still productive in New Romanian : credin ț ă 'trust' versus credin ci os 'faithful', oglin d ă 'mirror' versus oglin j oară 'Spiegelein'.
A j - metathesis took place here:
- lat. rubeum > * robju > rum. roib 'red'
Vowels
The classical Latin system of long and short vowels has been simplified in Vulgar Latin. In general, the following sound shifts can be determined:
- ī> i
- ĭ and ē> e
- ĕ> ɛ
- ā and ă> a
- ŏ> ɔ
- ō and ŭ> o
- ū> u
The following sound shifts occurred in the Balkans and part of southern Italy:
- ī> i
- ĭ and> e
- ĕ> ɛ
- ā and ă> a
- ŏ and ō> o
- ū and ŭ> u
The following examples are cited by Lee:
- ī> i: filum (thread)> fir, mille (thousand)> mie
- ĭ> e: circus (circle)> cerc, lignum (wood)> lemn
- ē> e: densus (dense)> des, stella (star)> stea
- ĕ> ɛ ie: ferrum (iron)> fier, pectus (chest)> beeps
- ā> a: latus (side)> lat, pace (peace)> pace
- ă> a: mare (sea)> mare, sale (salt)> sare
- ŏ> o: porcus (pig)> porc, cornu (horn)> corn
- ō> o: nodus (knot)> nod, olarius (potter)> olar
- ū> u: cruce (cross)> cruce, furca (fork)> furcă
- ŭ> u: crudud (raw)> crud, luna (moon)> lună etc.
It is believed that ae also became * ɛ when pronounced accentuated in Latin. Over time, * ɛ became the diphthong * / je / .
Softening unstressed vowels
Unstressed a became ă (except at the beginning of a word), unstressed o is today u . Later ă became e , it was after palatal sounds. Stressed o was retained in some words.
- lat. capra > rum. capră 'goat'
- lat. vīnea > * vinja > * viɲă > * viɲe > rum. vie / vije / 'vineyard'
- lat. formōsus > rum. frumos 'beautiful'
Change of the e
Latin e became ă when preceded by a labial consonance and a dark vowel was in the following syllable. Accordingly, e remained unchanged, followed by an e or an i .
- lat. mēnsam > * mesa > * măsă > rum. masă 'table', but:
- lat. mēnsae > * mese > rum. mese 'tables'
- lat. vēndō > * vendu > * văndu > * vându > rum. vând 'I sell', but:
- lat. vēndis > * vendi > * vendzi > * vindzi > rum. vinzi 'you sell'
Consonants
Individual consonants did not experience any major changes.
Labiovelare
Labialized velar plosives changed to a labial in front of a and a smooth velar in front of other vowels; in question words the initial qu - never shifted to p -.
- lat. quattuor > * quattro > rum. patru 'four'
- lat. equa > * ɛpa > * jepa > rum. iapă 'mare'
- lat. lingua > * lemba > rum. limbă 'tongue; Language ', but:
- lat. quid > * ki > rum. ce 'what'
- lat. quandō > * kando > * kându > rum. când 'when'
- lat. sanguine > * sangin > rum. sang 'blood'
Labialised velars in front of dentals
Latin ct became pt , gn became mn and x became ps , the latter often being simplified to s :
- lat. factum > * faptu > rum. fapt 'deed, fact'
- lat. signum > * semnu > rum. semn 'sign'
- lat. coxa > * copsa > rum. coapsă 'thigh', but:
- lat. fraxinus > frapsinu ( aromanian )> rum. frasin 'ash' (vs. banater frapsăn , frapsine )
- lat. laxō > * lapso > * lassu > rum. read 'I leave'
l - Rhotazism
Intervowel l changed to r , Latin ll was not affected.
- lat. gelu > rum. ger 'frost'
- lat. salīre > rum. a sări ( sărire ) 'jump'
2. Palatalization
The consonants t , d and s were again palatalized before i or j ( je < ɛ <emphasized e ):
- Lat. testa > * tɛsta > * tjesta > * Testa > rum. țeastă 'skull'
- lat. decem > * dɛke > * djeke > * dzeče > rum. zece 'ten'
- lat. servum > * sɛrbu > * sjerbu > rum. șerb 'serf'
- lat. dīcō > * dziku > rum. zic 'I say'
Changes in modern times
Some of these shifts did not take place in all Eastern Romance languages and dialects; some are unknown in the standard Romanian language.
In southern dialects, dz became z in all surroundings :
- dzic > zic 'I say'
- lucredzi > lucrezi 'you work'
dsch became voiced sh when followed by a dark vowel:
- gioc / dʒok / > joc 'game', but:
- deget / dedʒet / 'finger' did not change.
Insertion of a sliding semi-vowel
This can only be found with some words:
- pâne > pâine 'bread'
- câne > câine 'dog'
This also explains the plural of mână 'hand' - mâini 'hands' in southern dialects as well as the written language; in other regions câne is common.
Hardening of the 'ș', 'ț' and 'dz'
This hardening is typical of the northern dialects of Romanian. Here "sch", "z" and "ds" can only be followed by dark vowels; the consequence is the transformation of all light to dark vowels:
- și > șî ‚and '
- ține > țânʲe '(he / she / it) holds'
- dzic > dzâc 'I say'
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles H Grandgent: An introduction to vulgar Latin . Hafner, New York 1962 ( worldcat.org [accessed January 31, 2019]).
- ↑ a b c Lee, Mun-Suh, 1948-: Romania orientalis: on the emergence of Romanian . Schäuble, Rheinfelden 1986, ISBN 3-87718-764-1 , p. 104-124 .