Historical phonology of Slevan

Vulgar Latin sound changes

1. Loss of Y:

[+syll,+front,+rounded] > [-rounded]

The Greek front rounded y and ȳ unround to i and ī, or were borrowed as unrounded to begin with.

2. Loss of quantity distinction and rise of quality distinction in vowels:

ā, ă > a

ē > e

ĕ > ɛ

ī > i

ĭ > ɪ

ō > o

ŏ > ɔ

ū > u

ŭ > ʊ

The Latin distinction of vowel quantity gradually developed into one of vowel quality, and vowel quantity was eventually lost. It is likely that the population of the future Slevania still had quantitative distinctions in their Slavic dialect when they adopted Vulgar Latin, but the Vulgar Latin vowel phonemes were mapped to the nearest equivalent Slavic vowels based on their quality. In any case the notations a, ē, ĕ, ī, ĭ, ō, ŏ, ū, ŭ will be kept for the sake of ease of presentation and to faciliate comparison with the Latin words found in dictionaries.

3. Monophthongization

ae > ĕ

oe > ē

au > ō

eu > jū

iu > ū