Luthic: Difference between revisions

The most sonorous elements of the [[w:Syllable|syllable]] are [[w:Vowel|vowels]], which occupy the [[w:Nucleus (syllable)|nuclear]] position. They are prototypical [[w:Mora (linguistics)|mora]]-bearing elements, with simple vowels monomoraic, and long vowels bimoraic. Latin vowels occurred with one of five qualities and one of two weights, that is short and long /i e a o u/. At first, weight was realised by means of longer or shorter duration, and any articulatory differences were negligible, with the short:long opposition stable. Subtle articulatory differences eventually grow and lead to the abandonment of length, and reanalysis of vocal contrast is shifted solely to quality rather than both quality and quantity; specifically, the manifestation of weight as length came to include differences in tongue [[w:Vowel height|height]] and tenseness, and quite early on, /ī, ū/ began to differ from /ĭ, ŭ/ articulatorily, as did /ē, ō/ from /ĕ, ŏ/. The long vowels were stable, but the short vowels came to be realised lower and laxer, with the result that /ĭ, ŭ/ opened to [ɪ, ʊ], and /ĕ, ŏ/ opened to [ε, ɔ]. The result is the merger of Latin /ĭ, ŭ/ and /ē, ō/, since their contrast is now realised sufficiently be their distinct vowel quality, which would be easier to articulate and perceive than vowel duration.

| i iː ĩː

| u uː ũː

| e eː ẽː

| o oː õː

| ä äː ä̃ː

| ɪ iː ĩː

| ʊ uː ũː

| ε eː ẽː

| ɔ oː õː

| ä äː ä̃ː

Unstressed a resulted in a slightly raised a [ɐ]. In hiatus, unstressed front vowels become /j/, while unstressed back vowels become /w/. Unlike other Romance languages, the Luthic vowel system was not so affected by [[w:Metaphony|metaphony]], such as /e/ raising to /i/ or /ɛ/ raising to /e/:

* Latin [[wikt:vindemia#Latin|''vī̆ndēmia'']] [[wikt:AP:pron:la|[u̯i(ː)n̪.ˈd̪eː.mi.ä]]] > Vulgar Latin *[[w:Proto-Romance_language#Phonology|[benˈde.mja]]] > Spanish [[wikt:vendimia#Spanish|''vendimia'']] [[wikt:AP:pron:es|[bẽn̪ˈd̪i.mja]]], but the Luthic cognate ''vendemia'' [[IPA for Luthic|[venˈde.mjɐ]]]

In addition to monophthongs, Luthic has diphthongs, which, however, are both phonemically and phonetically simply combinations of the other vowels. None of the diphthongs are, however, considered to have distinct phonemic status since their constituents do not behave differently from how they occur in isolation, unlike the diphthongs in other languages like English and German. Grammatical tradition distinguishes “falling” from “rising” diphthongs, but since rising diphthongs are composed of one semiconsonantal sound [j] or [w] and one vowel sound, they are not actually diphthongs. The practice of referring to them as “diphthongs” has been criticised by phoneticians like Alareicu Villavolfu.