User:Melroch/Vulgar Latin

I began a phonology, but it seems my sources were too contradictory, and old, so that they didn't distinguish sufficiently between phonological, morphological and analogical changes, or at least had a different idea about them from modern sources. Anyway my first attempt at anything tends to get messy! ☺

Vowels

Stressed vowels

0)	Latin	ī	ĭ	ē	ĕ	ā	ă	ŏ	ō	ŭ	ū
1)	Early V.L.	i	ɪ	e	ɛ	a		ɔ	o	ʊ	u
2)	Sard/African V.L.	i		e		a		o		u
3)	Sicilian V.L.	i			e	a		o	u
4)	Corsican V.L.	i	ɛ	e	ɛ	a		ɔ	o	ɔ	u
5)	Western V.L.	i	e		ɛ	a		ɔ	o		u
6)	Eastern V.L.	i	e		ɛ	a		ɔ	o	u

New Version

Stressed vowels

a0	a1	0)	Latin	ī	ĭ	ē	ĕ	ā	ă	ŏ	ō	ŭ	ū	a2	a3
a4	a5
a6	a7	1)	Sard/African V.L.	i		e		a		o		u
a10	a11
a12	a13	2)	Corsican V.L.	i	ɛ	e	ɛ	a		ɔ	o	ɔ	u
a16	a17
a18	a19	3)	Early V.L.	i	ɪ	e	ɛ	a		ɔ	o	ʊ	u	a20	a21
a22	a23													a24	a25
		4)	Sicilian V.L.	i			e	a		o	u			a28	a29
														a30	a31
		5)	Western V.L.	i	e		ɛ	a		ɔ	o		u	a34	a35
														a36	a37
		6)	Eastern V.L.	i	e		ɛ	a		ɔ	o	u		a40	a41
														a42	a43

Comments

All attested Romance vowel systems presuppose an early Vulgar Latin (1) system where the length distinction of the Latin (0) were replaced by distinctions of quality, or by a distinction of tenseness. The exception is the Sard-African system (2) where the length distinction was simply lost.

All of (2, 3, 5, 6) can be derived from (1), although in the case of (2) it is more reasonable to assume that it derives directly from (0) through loss of the length distinction. In the case of (4) it is most likely that it derives from a system parallel to (1) where ĭ had merged with ĕ and ŭ had merged with ŏ before the loss of the length distinction.

References

• ^  "Afrae aures de correptione vocalium vel productione non iudicant". Augustine De doctrina christiana 4.24
• ^  My only reference for such a system in Corsican, which seems to be contradicted by other sources, is a somewhat unclear passage in

  Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. Einführung in das Studium der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1920.