Nasal Vowel Evolution in RomanceThis book provides a complete, comparative, nongallocentric account of nasality in all the Romance languages. It demonstrates the central role of nasality in the history of sound changes in the languages of southern Europe. In doing so, it assembles a large amount of important philological and linguistic data previously dispersed and difficult to access, and organizes it in a way that allows the author (and will allow the reader) to analyse it systematically. Two introductory chapters discuss general principles of nasality and Romance nasalization. Subsequent chapters are then devoted to each language. The author considers all the standard varieties and a substantial range of non-standard varieties, and identifies broad characteristics of vowel nasalization in Romance. In the the final chapter he makes a clear bridge between the data-rich discussion of individual languages and the isolation of language universals. This is will be the standard work in its field for many years. It will be of central interest to linguists and philologists of Romance, as well as to those concerned more generally to understand the causes, patterns, and processes of sound change. |
Contents
Vowel Nasalization in Romance | 32 |
The Latin Background | 41 |
French | 53 |
NonStandard Varieties of langue doïl | 113 |
Occitan | 138 |
Catalan and Spanish | 158 |
GalicianPortuguese | 175 |
RhetoRomance | 219 |
Sardinian and Corsican | 282 |
Romanian Balkan Romance | 298 |
Retrospect and Prospects | 339 |
Maps | 351 |
| 367 | |
| 389 | |
| 411 | |
ItaloRomance | 235 |
Common terms and phrases
allophonic allophonic nasality apocope appear back vowel BĚNE BÕNUM central coda nasals conditioning nasal consonant context type contrast deletion denasalization diphthong early evidence final forms French front vowel Galician geminate graphy high nasal vowels high vowels high-mid indicated intervocalic Italy LĀNA langue d'oïl later Latin levels of nasality lexical linguistic low vowel low-mid lowering LŪNA merger metaphonic mid vowels nasal coda nasal consonant nasal diphthongs nasal vowel phonemes nasalizing contexts neutralization northern Italian dialects Occitan occurred off-glide oral consonant oral vowel original palatal PĀNEM phonemic nasal vowels phonological Portuguese preceding vowel pronunciation raising reflex result Romance Romanian sequences simplex sixteenth century speakers standard language stressed syllables stressed vowel thirteenth century unconditioned nasal vowels unstressed variation varieties velar vowel height vowel length vowel nasalization vowel system vowel types vowels in context weakening word-final nasal