Re: Spanish, a Romance language

From: Ekkehard Dengler (ED-RS_at_t-online.de)
Date: 10/26/04 

Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 01:22:34 +0200

"Harlan Messinger" <h.messinger@comcast.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:2u77sqF26rfr7U1@uni-berlin.de...
>
> "Ruud Harmsen" <realemailseesite01@rudhar.com> wrote in message
> news:q1jsn0pahqmlg9s056c77695bt2n00hg41@4ax.com...

> > With a little shift
> > of stress, or the two vowels becoming a single-syllable diphthong, the
> > step to io -> yo in Spanish is not surprising.
>
> That's the only part I *do* find surprising. Were there other, comparable
> developments in Spanish?

Hi Harlan.

The "ue" and "ie" diphthongs as we know them today could be the result of a
similar shift: *"rúeda" > "ruéda", *"píedra" > "piédra".

I forget where I got this idea from, to be honest, but support for this
theory comes from the fact that there's a general tendency for rounded back
vowels (as in Lat. "rota") to turn into falling, centring diphthongs such as
[o@] or [u@]. In Latvian, for instance, <o> is usually pronounced [u@].

As far as the stress shift is concerned, the French "oi" diphthong is
analogous to Span. "yo", if I'm not mistaken.

Regards,
Ekkehard

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