The economy of diphthongization in early romance [Reprint 2017 ed.] 3111000788, 9783111000787

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THE ECONOMY OF DIPHTHONGIZATION IN EARLY ROMANCE

JANUA LINGUARUM STUDIA MEMORIAE N I C O L A I VAN WIJK DEDICATA

edenda curai

C. H. VAN S C H O O N E V E L D I N D I A N A UNIVERSITY

SERIES P R A C T I C A LV

1968

MOUTON THE H A G U E • PARIS

THE ECONOMY OF DIPHTHONGIZATION IN EARLY ROMANCE by

LUIGI ROMEO U N I V E R S I T Y OF C O L O R A D O

1968

MOUTON THE H A G U E • PARIS

© Copyright 1968 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 68-15539

Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague.

TO

FRANCES

PREFACE

Several seminars on general and Romance linguistics held by Professor Eugene Dorfman at the University of Washington, during the years 1957-1960, dealt with the relationship between linguistic theory of sound change and the organization of comparative data. In the application of the principles of linguistic economy to actual problems of Romance linguistics, several projects were outlined on different aspects of phonological investigation. The Romance vocalic systems and their dynamic evolution seemed to offer a promising field for analysis. The original version of The Economy of Diphthongization in Early Romance is the thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Romance Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, 1960. Between this date and the present, no important theories nor new documentation have been forwarded to eventually affect any theoretical or historical aspect of this investigation. The present version, thus, contains only a few minor changes dictated by a better presentation of the paradigmatic charts and by the correction of clerical errors. It also includes an index of authors, one of technical terms and another of words. A brief section of this dissertation, about one chapter, was published as "Structural Pressures and Paradigmatic Diphthongization in East Romance", Word, XIX (April 1963), pp. 1-19. By the most amazing coincidence, there appeared at the same time Maria Manoliu's "Note de fonologie romanicà diacronicà",1 Revista de filologie romanicâ fi germanicâ, VII (1963), pp. 9-15. After a synthetic and critical presentation of the original "Vulgar Latin" views held by A. G. Haudricourt and A. G. Juilland in their Essai pour une histoire structurale du phonétisme français (Paris, Klincksieck, 1949), passim, Manoliu proposes "la transformation d'y en o, en roumain", independently of the influence of Classical Latin au, i.e., contrary to Haudricourt's and Juilland's earlier theories. Translated into French [from which I took the quotation given above] as "Notes de phonologie romane diachronique", 1

The content of the article is incorrectly indicated as "Early Rumanian diphthongs are studied in a general Romance context by M. Manoliu ... and by L. Romeo ..." by R. R. Posner and J. A. Cremona in the "Romance Linguistics" Section of The Year's Work in Romance Languages and Literature, XXV (1963 [1965]), p. 17. Manoliu, as a matter of fact, did not study any "Early Rumanian diphthongs". Only the Latin au was considered within the framework of Romance (not Roumanian) vowel systems. Throughout this work, I prefer the spelling of Roumanian with the -ou- in order to avoid possible confusions.

g

PREFACE

Revue de linguistique [from 1964 on = Revue romaine de linguistique], VIII (1963), pp. 239-245, Manoliu's article offers grounds for excitement when her considerations are compared with the corresponding sections of my dissertation (Copyright A 555764, June 30,1961) that was available, as early as 1961, through University Microfilms, Inc.2 In connection with Manoliu's article, it is interesting to read N. C. W. Spence's "Quantity and Quality in the Vowel-System of Vulgar Latin", Word, XXI (1965), pp. 1-18, which presents an attempt to classify and critically analyze various hypotheses accounting for the change of quantity to quality in "Vulgar Latin". Among the three hypotheses, Spence finds it difficult, though not through any fault of his own, to grasp the keen proposal of solution advanced by H. Weinrich (on the "linking" of vowels and consonants), since Weinrich still thinks in terms of "long" consonants whenever these are involved.3 The present work has been made possible through the kindness and the cooperation of many people. Mrs. Margaret Trudo and Mrs. Ruth M. Kirk, of the Interlibrary Loan Office of the University of Washington, have been extremely helpful, and Mrs. Eve Casey deserves the utmost gratitude for her patience and skill in the typing of the manuscript. The publication of this work was partially supported by a Graduate School Continuing Research Grant of the University of Colorado. My indebtedness is expressed to Professors Howard L. Nostrand, William E. Wilson, Carroll E. Reed, Lurline V. Simpson, Seymour S. Weiner, Victor Hanzeli, and Thomas Sousa. Professor Iorgu Iordan, of the Linguistic Institute of Bucharest, deserves special thanks for his generous help in bibliographical material. Finally, Professor Eugene Dorfman is most of all thanked for his constant encouragement and counsel, as well as for his help which went beyond the duties of his position as thesis director and adviser. Boulder, Colorado, June 21, 19654

2

"O-P Book" 61-1330. See Dissertation Abstracts, XXI (1960-1961), 3776. H. Weinrich, Phonologische Studien zur romanischen Sprachgeschichte (Munster, Aschendorff, [1958]), p. 18. The problem of the so-called "long" or "double" consonants has always obstructed many diachronic investigations in the Romance languages. Its solution could be the "Rosetta stone" to the whole problem of "quantity" versus quality, not only in Latin but in other Indo-European languages such as Greek. This general linguistics aspect tells us, once more, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to analyze sub-systems without viewing them at all times bound to and within the total system. For a partial aspect of the pseudo-consonantal length, see L. Romeo, "On the Phonemic Status of the so-Called 'Geminates' in Italian", Linguistics, 29 (1967), pp. 105-116. 4 The publication of O. Nadrij's Phonétique historique du roumain (Paris, Klincksieck, 1963), a copy of which reached me after the revision of the present work in 1965, has not affected my views on the unity of Romania as far as initial paradigmatic diphthongization is concerned. Nandriç's difficulty in explaining the co-existence of diphthongal variants in Roumanian seems to reinforce my theories. For a comparison between Nandriç's historical data and my theoretical speculations, see R. Posner, "Rumanian and Romance Phonology", Romance Philology, XIX (1966), pp. 450-459. Boulder, Colorado, May 14, 1967. 8

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

7

List of Abbreviations

11

List of Figures

13

Introduction

15 PART I:

THE NATURE OF THE DIPHTHONG

I. Theories and Definitions II. The Phonetics of the Dipththong

27 37

PART II: FUNCTION AND STRUCTURE IN THE VOCALIC SYSTEM

III. The Phonemics of the Diphthong

55

IV. Paradigmatic Diphthongization in General Romance

67

PART HI: THE ECONOMY OF DIPHTHONGIZATION IN EARLY ROMANCE

V. The Three-Degree Systems VI. The Four-Degree Systems

79 89

Conclusion

108

Glossary

Ill

Bibliography

113

Index of Authors

121

Index of Technical Terms

124

Index of Words

126

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AGI

Archivio Glottologico Italiano, Torino, 1873—

AIS CIL

K. Jaberg, and J. Jud, Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz (Zofingen, 19281940). Corpus inscriptionum latinorum. Ed. Th. Mommsen (Berlin, Berolini, 1862—).

REfV

Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm, Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg, Winter, 1935).

TCLC

Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague, 1944—

TCLP

Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, 1929-1939.

ZRPh

Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, Halle, 1877—

LIST OF FIGURES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13a. 13b. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20a. 20b. 21a. 21b. 22. 23. 24a. 24b. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38a. 38b.

Muscular Tension for an Isolated Vowel Vowel with Continuous Duration Decrease in Muscular Tension The Syllable and Muscular Tension The Syllabic Break The Ascending Diphthong The Descending Diphthong Two Vowels in Hiatus Jones's Modified Diagram The Vowel Glide Progression Jones's "more accurate Form of Vowel Diagram" The Glide a« The Variability of An The Variability of u au in Jones's Ellipse The Fluctuation of AO The Fluctuation of AO and An The Variability of the Gliding Distance Gliding Distance Outside Vowel Boundaries An and AO in the Central Region Cardinal Possibilities (Numbers) Cardinal Possibilities (Vowels) Monoserial and Diserial Diphthongal Glides (Front-Back) Monoserial and Diserial Diphthongal Glides (Back-Front) Position of Cardinal and Non-Cardinal Vowel Phones Diphthongal Realizations Classical Latin Vowel System Classical Latin Diphthongal System Opposition of Low versus High Opposition of Front versus Back The Indo-European Diphthongal Inventory Antkowski's Reduction Classical Latin Short and Long Vowels Dorfman's Scheme of Inherited Indo-European Diphthongs The Diphthongal Opposition Front/Back Passage from Quantity to Quality Three-Degree Vulgar Latin Vocalic System Four-Degree Vulgar Latin Vocalic System Phonetic Vowel Chart of Romania Core and Non-Core Vocalic System in Vulgar Latin The Four Categories of Opposition Front/Back Opposition of Vowels as Groups Front/Back Opposition of Vowels as Pairs

39 40 41 42 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 48 48 48 49 49 49 49 49 50 50 50 50 50 51 51 58 58 59 59 60 60 61 61 61 61 62 63 64 64 65 65 65

14

39a. 39b. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44a. 44b. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60a. 60b. 60c. 61. 62. 63a. 63b. 64. 65a. 65b. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72a. 72b. 73. 74. 75. 76a. 76b. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83.

LIST OF FIGURES

Close/Open Opposition of Vowels as Groups Close/Open Opposition of Vowels as Pairs General Romance Phonemic Diagram of the Vocalic System Relative Proportions in a Triangular Scheme Modified Proportions Phonemes and Margins of Tolerance in Vulgar Latin Total Area of Variation Area of Variation and Margins of Tolerance Area of Variation in Classical Latin Margins of Tolerance in Classical and Vulgar Latin Pressure of au in General Romance Comparative Chart of Margins of Tolerance The Vocalic Phonemes in General Romance Margins of Tolerance for the Diphthongs/iç/and/uq/ Allophonic Possibilities for Diphthongal Variation The Basis for Phonetic and Phonemic Change The Three Groups of Scholars and the Stress Theory Deferrari's Possible Types of Diphthongs Theoretical Differentiation of Open Mid Vowels Master Chart of Theoretical Possibilities The Master Phonemic Diagram Diagrammatic Representation of a Two-Degree Paradigm Comparative Chart of the Structural Pressures Phonetic Processes for Sardinian and Southern Corsican Phonetic Processes for Southern Calabrian and Northeastern Sicilian Phonetic Processes for Southern Lucanian The Three-Degree Paradigms. Group 1 The Three-Degree Paradigms. Group 2 Phonetic Processes for Four-Degree Systems Alleged Phonetic Processes The Four-Degree Paradigms. Group 3 Istrian Vowel System Vegliote Vowel System Early Vegliote Vocalic System Diphthongal Progression in Vegliote Words Diphthongal Progression from Vulgar Latin to Vegliote Tagliavini's Scheme for "East" Romania Early Daco-Roumanian Vocalic System Early Daco-Roumanian Diphthongal System (Initial Stage) Early Daco-Roumanian Diphthongal System (First Three Stages) Early Daco-Roumanian Diphthongal System (Last Stage) Early Daco-Roumanian Diphthongal Evolution Early Daco-Roumanian Reflexes of Front Mid Vowels Early Daco-Roumanian Reflexes of Back Mid Vowels Modern Daco-Roumanian Merger of Back Vowels Modern Daco-Roumanian Merger of Back Vowel Reflexes The Four-Degree Paradigms. Group 4 Early Castilian Vocalic System Vulgar Latin to Early Francien Diphthongal Evolution Early Franco-Provençal Diphthongal Evolution Merging of o1 and o2 Reflexes in Franco-Provençal Diphthongal Development in Early Galician List of Early Romance Vernaculars Analyzed

66 66 66 68 68 68 69 69 69 70 70 71 71 71 72 72 73 74 75 79 80 81 82 83 83 83 85 87 89 89 91 94 94 94 95 95 96 97 98 98 98 99 100 101 101 102 103 105 105 106 106 106 108

INTRODUCTION

0.0. The diphthong, as a phonological entity, has often presented difficulties in linguistic analysis. In many ways, the diphthong has been of special interest to numerous Indo-European scholars. Some of their conclusions, however, in the frame of contemporary knowledge of linguistics, call for re-evaluation. 0.1. The aim of this investigation is to present a diachronic analysis of the early paradigmatic diphthongs in the Romance languages. In General Romance, chronologically early paradigmatic diphthongs are due largely to the differentiation of Vulgar Latin mid vowels, while the later paradigmatic diphthongs are due mainly to the differentiation of the low and high Vulgar Latin vowels. Classical Latin au, wherever it occurs either in its retained form [au] or changed to [