The present paper attempts to rethink the old and yet still unresolved problem of Spanish metaphony in a Romance perspective. I argue that metaphony of low-mid vowels was at the beginning a diphthongization (LĔCTU > *lieito), followed by various processes of monopthongization (> cat. llit, esp. lecho, port. leito). In line with Menéndez Pidal’s approach, metaphony of high-mid vowels is considered to be later, and often to not have occurred because the palatalization process had eliminated the metaphonic context. Explanations are then offered for some special cases like cuña, cigüeña, lucha, mucho, etc. I maintain that metaphonic contexts include not only yod, but also waw, and final -I and -U. Differences between Iberian varieties can be explained by the evolution of final -U, which opened earlier in Castilian, Aragonese and Catalan, later in Galician-Portuguese, and is still preserved in Asturian.

La inflexión revisitada o Elogio de la comparación

BARBATO, MARCELLO
2012-01-01

Abstract

The present paper attempts to rethink the old and yet still unresolved problem of Spanish metaphony in a Romance perspective. I argue that metaphony of low-mid vowels was at the beginning a diphthongization (LĔCTU > *lieito), followed by various processes of monopthongization (> cat. llit, esp. lecho, port. leito). In line with Menéndez Pidal’s approach, metaphony of high-mid vowels is considered to be later, and often to not have occurred because the palatalization process had eliminated the metaphonic context. Explanations are then offered for some special cases like cuña, cigüeña, lucha, mucho, etc. I maintain that metaphonic contexts include not only yod, but also waw, and final -I and -U. Differences between Iberian varieties can be explained by the evolution of final -U, which opened earlier in Castilian, Aragonese and Catalan, later in Galician-Portuguese, and is still preserved in Asturian.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Inflexión.pdf

non disponibili

Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 1.5 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.5 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11574/99214
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
social impact