Atlantic/Older version: Difference between revisions

/l/ completely disappeared from the Vulgar Latin dialects that became Atlantic, often by dissimilation to /r/ before other consonants (cf. <small>(PRŌVINCIĀS) ĀTLANTICĀS</small> > *Ordanticot > ''Ondàrtigot''), and usually by turning into /j/ (after front vowels or /a/) or /w/ (after back vowels), cf. <small>CABALLVM</small> > ''cauài'' "horse", <small>MĪLLE</small> > ''miu'' "thousand".<br/>Word-initially, it most commonly turned into /n/ – cf. <small>LINGVAM</small> > ''nimba'' "language" – but if the word contained an onset nasal, then it turned into /r/, as in <small>LV̄NA</small> > ''rauna'' "moon". This is the origin of the two sets of definite articles used in Atlantic, with the usual forms being ''in'' and ''na'', but with ''ir'' and ''ra'' being used if the word they attach to has a nasal in its first syllable (cf. ''na rauna'' "the moon" but ''ra nimba'' "the language"). Originally this only applied to the feminine article, and if the word had a nasal but in coda it didn't apply, but analogy has extended this to all cases (cf. ''ir ondartigòr'' "the Atlantic man").

==Notes==