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Atlantic is part of its own branch among Romance languages, but shares many common features with Western Romance languages, notably Catalan. | Atlantic is part of its own branch among Romance languages, but shares many common features with Western Romance languages, notably Catalan. | ||
The typical distinctive feature of Atlantic is its shifting of Vulgar Latin vowels which, while not completely unlike to how it developed in Sicilian, has a unique - and easily noticeable - change in having kept long and short /a/ distinct, with (Vulgar) Latin /aː/ being reflected as /o/. This is easily noted for example in all first conjugation verbs, as <small>COMPROBĀRE</small> > '' | The typical distinctive feature of Atlantic is its shifting of Vulgar Latin vowels which, while not completely unlike to how it developed in Sicilian, has a unique - and easily noticeable - change in having kept long and short /a/ distinct, with (Vulgar) Latin /aː/ being reflected as /o/. This is easily noted for example in all first conjugation verbs, as <small>COMPROBĀRE</small> > ''cumpuruò'' "to like" /kumpurˈwo/ or <small>LV̄DITĀRE</small> > ''nauuidò'' "to practice" /nau̯wiˈdo/. | ||
Among mid vowels, the short ones were raised to /i u/ while the long ones remained /e o/, cf. <small>TERRA</small> > ''tira'' "land, earth, soil", <small>FOCVM</small> > ''fug'' "fire", <small>RATIŌNEM</small> > ''raçon'' "reason, cause", <small>TRĒS</small> > ''çet'' "three (m/f)". | Among mid vowels, the short ones were raised to /i u/ while the long ones remained /e o/, cf. <small>TERRA</small> > ''tira'' "land, earth, soil", <small>FOCVM</small> > ''fug'' "fire", <small>RATIŌNEM</small> > ''raçon'' "reason, cause", <small>TRĒS</small> > ''çet'' "three (m/f)". | ||
Long vowels /iː uː/ were diphthongized to /ai̯ au̯/ when in open syllables, while they shortened and merged into /i u/ in other cases: <small>LV̄NA</small> > ''rauna'' "moon", <small>VICĪNVM</small> > ''uiçain'' "neighbour; close", <small>MAURĪTĀNIAM</small> > ''Muridonea'' "Mauritania", <small>NV̄LLIFICĀRE</small> > '' | Long vowels /iː uː/ were diphthongized to /ai̯ au̯/ when in open syllables, while they shortened and merged into /i u/ in other cases: <small>LV̄NA</small> > ''rauna'' "moon", <small>VICĪNVM</small> > ''uiçain'' "neighbour; close", <small>MAURĪTĀNIAM</small> > ''Muridonea'' "Mauritania", <small>NV̄LLIFICĀRE</small> > ''nuiifigò'' "to cancel, revoke". Latin /au̯/ had probably merged with /uː/ before, and shifted back to /au̯/ for the same reason, cf. <small>AVRA</small> > *ūra > aura "gold" <small>(plurale tantum)</small>. | ||
Short word-final vowels except for /a/ were lost as in Gallo-Romance, but in some words short vowels, usually /i/ or /u/, were later added again in order to break clusters; typically it was inserted into a -Cr cluster (<small>CASTRVM</small> > *castr > ''caistur'' "city", cf. <small>CASTRA</small> > ''caistra'' "cities") but after a -NC cluster (<small>QVĪNQVE</small> > *quingui > *pimb > ''pimbi'' "five"). /-ts/ (> /s/ today in most dialects) and /s/ + stop clusters were not changed, cf. <small>LACTEM</small> > *nasti > ''nast'' "milk". First-person singular verbs typically added /a/ to avoid difficult clusters, as in *<small>ADOP(E)RŌ</small> > *dubr > ''dubra'' "I use". | Short word-final vowels except for /a/ were lost as in Gallo-Romance, but in some words short vowels, usually /i/ or /u/, were later added again in order to break clusters; typically it was inserted into a -Cr cluster (<small>CASTRVM</small> > *castr > ''caistur'' "city", cf. <small>CASTRA</small> > ''caistra'' "cities") but after a -NC cluster (<small>QVĪNQVE</small> > *quingui > *pimb > ''pimbi'' "five"). /-ts/ (> /s/ today in most dialects) and /s/ + stop clusters were not changed, cf. <small>LACTEM</small> > *nasti > ''nast'' "milk". First-person singular verbs typically added /a/ to avoid difficult clusters, as in *<small>ADOP(E)RŌ</small> > *dubr > ''dubra'' "I use". | ||
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/l/ was later reintroduced into the language through Arabic loans and later Latin and Greek learned reborrowings – cf. ''luua'' "dialect" from Arabic لغة ''luḡa''. | /l/ was later reintroduced into the language through Arabic loans and later Latin and Greek learned reborrowings – cf. ''luua'' "dialect" from Arabic لغة ''luḡa''. | ||
Atlantic palatalized /k ɡ/ as most Western Romance languages did, to /ts dz/; /ts/ also resulted from <small>-TI-</small> and <small>-TR-</small> (but not <small>-STR-</small>) clusters. These were later deaffricated to /s z/ in most dialects, but a few Numidian ones still retain the affricates. See <small>RATIŌNEM</small> > ''raçon'' "reason, cause" /raˈtson/ > /raˈson/, <small>TRIA</small> > ''çìa'' "three (disj.)" /ˈtsi.a/ > /ˈsi.a/, <small>GELĀRE</small> > '' | Atlantic palatalized /k ɡ/ as most Western Romance languages did, to /ts dz/; /ts/ also resulted from <small>-TI-</small> and <small>-TR-</small> (but not <small>-STR-</small>) clusters. These were later deaffricated to /s z/ in most dialects, but a few Numidian ones still retain the affricates. See <small>RATIŌNEM</small> > ''raçon'' "reason, cause" /raˈtson/ > /raˈson/, <small>TRIA</small> > ''çìa'' "three (disj.)" /ˈtsi.a/ > /ˈsi.a/, <small>GELĀRE</small> > ''giuò'' "to freeze" /dziˈwo/ > /ziˈwo/. <small>-DI-</small> developed differently depending on whether it was followed by a front or by a non-front vowel. Before non-front vowels, the palatal element was lost so that it developed as regular intervocalic /d/ (see below); before front vowels, it palatalized to /dz/ much like <small>-TI-</small> did; cf. <small>NVMIDIAM</small> > *Numida > ''Numìua'' "Numidia" /nuˈmiwa/ and <small>NVMIDIĒNSEM</small> > ''numigens'' /numiˈdzens/ > /numiˈzens/ "Numidian".<br/>As mentioned before, <small>-S-</small> blocked <small>-TR-</small> from shifting to /ts/; this /s/ was, in this environment, backed to /ʃ/, orthographically denoted by a preceding '''i''', as in <small>CASTRVM</small> > *castr > */ˈkastur/ > ''caistur'' "city" /ˈkaʃtur/<ref>Phonemic /ʃ/, however, only arose because of successive palatalizations, and before /tr/ only because of learned Latin or Greek borrowings, as ''stratòs'' /straˈtos/ "army" - cf. <small>EXTRĀNEVM</small> > *istroniu > ''istroin'' /iʃˈtroɲ/ "foreign".</ref>. | ||
Intervocalic lenition of stops also follows the Western Romance pattern: unvoiced stops become voiced and voiced stops become fricatives, with original /d/ becoming */ð/ > /w/ and original /ɡ/ becoming */ɣ/ > /w/ or */ɣ/ > /j/ according to nearby vowels: | Intervocalic lenition of stops also follows the Western Romance pattern: unvoiced stops become voiced and voiced stops become fricatives, with original /d/ becoming */ð/ > /w/ and original /ɡ/ becoming */ɣ/ > /w/ or */ɣ/ > /j/ according to nearby vowels: |
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