Metaphony (Romance languages)

Metaphony in central and southern Italo-Romance (i.e. excluding Tuscan) affects stressed mid-vowels if the following syllable contains or . As a general rule, the high-mids are raised to , and the low-mids are raised to or diphthongized to . Metaphony is not triggered by final . The main occurrences of final are as follows: • The plural of nouns in -o (< nominative plural -ī). • The plural of nouns in -e (either a regular development of alternative third-declension accusative plural -īs, or analogical to plural -ī). • The second-person singular present tense (a regular development of -īs in verbs in -īre and analogical in verbs in -ere, -ēre, -āre; in Old Italian, the ending -e is still found in -are verbs). • The first-person singular past indicative (< -ī). The main occurrences of final are as follows: • The first-person singular present indicative (< -ō). • Masculine "mass" nouns, and "neuter" (mass-noun) demonstratives (disputed origin). The main occurrence of final is in masculine "count" nouns (< -um). Metaphony in the northern Italian languages (those to the north of Tuscany) is triggered only by final . In these languages, as in Tuscan, final was lowered to ; it evidently happened prior to the action of metaphony. In these languages, metaphony also tends to apply to final , raising it to or . In most Italian languages, most final vowels have become obscured (in the south) or lost (in the north), and the effects of metaphony are often the only markers of masculine vs. feminine and singular vs. plural. == Western Romance languages ==

In all of the Western Romance languages, metaphony was triggered by a final (especially of the first-person singular of the preterite), raising mid-high stressed vowels to high vowels. (It does not normally occur in the nominative plural noun forms in Old French and Old Occitan that have a reflex of nominative plural , suggesting that these developments were removed early by analogy.) Examples: • vīgintī "twenty" > *vigintī > PIR > Italian venti; but > pre-PWR > PWR > Old Spanish veínte (> modern veinte ), Old Portuguese veínte (> viínte > modern vinte), Old French vint (> modern vingt ). • fēcī, fēcit "I did, he did" (preterite) > Italian feci, fece; but > pre-PWR > > PWR > Old Spanish fize, fezo(> fize, fizo > modern hice, hizo), Portuguese fiz, fez, Old French fis, fist ( Proto-Ibero-Romance > Portuguese porco vs. porcos ; novum, novōs, novam, novās "new (masc., masc. pl., fem., fem. pl.)" > PIR > Portuguese novo vs. novos, nova, novas . In this case, Old Portuguese apparently had in the singular vs. in the plural, despite the spelling ⟨-o -os⟩; a later development has raised plural to . Furthermore, the mass/count distinction is expressed very differently: Only a few "mass neuter" demonstratives exist, and they have a higher rather than lower vowel (tudo "everything" vs. todo "all (masc.)", isto "this (neut.)" vs. este "this (masc.)"). In addition, the original pattern has been extended to some nouns originally in . Metephony on present tense and imperative verbs also occurs. == Romanian ==

Romanian shows metaphony of the opposite sort, where final (and also , especially in the case of ) caused a diphthongization > , > , > : cēram "wax" > ceară; equam "mare" > > > iapă; flōrem "flower" > floare; nostrum, nostrī, nostram, nostrās "our (masc. sg., masc. pl., fem. sg., fem. pl.)" > > nostru, noștri, noastră, noastre. == Sardinian ==

Sardinian likewise has a distinction between final and (again with plural ), along with metaphony. In the conservative Logudorese and Nuorese dialects, the result of metaphony is a non-phonemic alternation between (when final or occurs) and (with other final vowels). In Campidanese, final have been raised to , with the result that the metaphonic alternations have been phonemicized. == See also ==