R: Re: R: Re: Who's in Ill Bethisad anyway?

Robert wrote:

> > If yes, you should take a look at Rumauntsch, Ladin (perhaps also
Friulian,
> > which is strictly tied to the Ladin branch of the Romance family),
Suisse
> > Romande (the French spoken in Switzerland) and the GalloItalic dialect
of
> > Ticino. Alas, I can speak and know only the last one - but I have some
brief
> > notes and a short lexicon of Friulian/Furlan.
> >
> > I'd be happy to help you.
> >
> > Luca
>
> Ooh. Well, I'll be sure to take a look at all those. For now, my biggest
> question is, do any of those have front rounded vowels, and if so, what
> sound shift resulted in them? If you know that, that'd be great.
Lemme see... Well, as for Suisse Romande and Schwitzerdütsch, they obviously
have front rounded /y/ and /Y/. As for the variety of Rumauntsch-Ladin
spoken in Switzerland, I'm not sure, the only knowledge I have of it is
based on Swiss banknotes (where there's written only something like: Banca
Naziunala Svizra - Tschuncanta Francs - la banconoda è protegida dal dretg
penal). Friulian does not have them.

The GalloItalic dialect of Ticino (it's a variety of Lombard spoken about 10
kms northern than I am) has them. They are the result of proto Romance /O/
and /u/:

/rOta/ 'wheel' > /rYda/ <röda>.

This however works only with open stressed syllables, indeed:
/kOrpu/ 'body' > /kOrp/ <corp>

Both /O/ and /Y/, when unstressed, become /u/:
/rO'taja/ > /rudaja/ <rudaja>
/kOrpu'rale/ > /kurpu'ra:l/ <curpuraal>.

/o/ becomes /u/:
/dolore/ 'ache, pain' > /dulu:r/ <duluur>.

/u/ becomes /y/ both in open and closed syllables:
/kuna/ 'cradle' > /kyna/ <cüna>
/kurtu/ 'short' > /kyrt/ <cürt>.

> Thanks in advance!
That's nothing!

Luca

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