Atlantic/Older version: Difference between revisions

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)".

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".

/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 back vowels or /a/) or /w/ (after front 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").<br/>/l/ changed this way also in the <small>FL-</small> initial cluster, where (just as in <small>FR-</small>) the initial /f/ became first an approximant /w/ and then got fully vocalized to /u/, giving ''ur-'' or ''un-'' in such words, like <small>FLŌREM</small> > */wnor/ > ''unòr'' /uˈnor/ "flower" or <small>FLV̄MEN</small> > */wrau̯m/ > ''uraum'' /uˈrau̯m/ "river". <small>PL-</small> and <small>CR-</small>, however, consistently became ''pr-'' and ''cr-'', which means that /l/ got rhotacized there before it got lost in other places (cf. <small>PLVVIAM</small> > ''pruia'' "rain", <small>ECCLĒSIAM</small> > **ecclīsam > ''icraisa'' "church").<br/>The <small>-LI-</small> cluster became a simple /j/, perhaps earlier */jj/, blocking the diphthongization of a preceding /uː iː/, as seen in the name of the Atlantic Provinces' second largest city, [[w:Iulia Valentia Banasa|Iuia Uaìnça]] < <small>IV̄LIAM VALENTIAM</small>.

: <small>CABALLVM</small> > *caual > ''cauài'' "horse"