Metaphony

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Metaphony is the term commonly used in Romance studies for a form of umlauts that is common in Romance languages . In terms of their origins, these are regressive long-range assimilations , in which a preceding middle vowel has been changed by a subsequent closed vowel (usually Latin -I or -U).

Metaphony is particularly common in the Italian dialects, appearing almost everywhere except in Tuscan . For example, in Lombard quest, “this” becomes quist “this” because the fallen -i metaphone the previous -e-: questi> quisti> quist (similar processes in German : father / fathers , Old High German gast / gesti “guests” Etc.). In southern Italian , singular forms can often only be distinguished from plural forms by the umlaut, for example pedi "foot" vs. pidi “feet” in Sicilian . In Spanish , metaphony plays a significant role in verbal inflection: Latin METIO becomes Spanish mido “I measure”. Here is the “i” that was originally an “e” influenced by the following -I. Similarly, Latin D O RM I UT "he slept"> Spanish d u rmió , here the original "o" becomes "u" because an "i" follows. In Romanian , metaphony plays a significant role in the formation of the plural, for example Romanian. pară "pear" / pere "pear", masă (<Latin MENSA "table") / mese "table" etc.

literature

  • Clifford S. Leonard: Umlaut in romance . Grossen-Linden: Hoffmann, 1978. 253 pages. ISBN 3-88098-017-9 .
  • Corrado Grassi (and others): Introduzione alla dialettologia italiana . Rome: Laterza, 3rd edition, 2006, especially pages 46–47.
  • Carla Marcato: Dialetto, dialetti e italiano . Bologna: il Mulino, 2002, in particular pages 189-190.