Re: Q Re: Sound Change (On Glide)

Quoting "David J. Peterson" <ThatBlueCat@...>:

> Now, I've never actually been taught this in any linguistics class (hence,
> why I'm asking), but in Spanish, it appears that Latin long mid vowels, when
> stressed, became diphthongs with an on-glide.  Examples:
[snip examples]

> Note: I'm imagining that there was an secondary stage with "dormir" where it
> was actually /dwormo/, at one time, and then the vowel fronted, for reasons
> unknown.
Indeed, it happens in a number of Romance languages...

> My question: Does anyone have any examples of this happening in other
> languages (nat or non)?
.. and in Old High German as well, IIRC.  It is a well known
phenomenon that unmarked diphthongs have at least one element
that is [+high], but where that [+high] element goes is determined
by other factors.  For the case in Spanish, I'd suggest taking a
look at Rebecca Posner's _The Romance Languages_, pp. 157-159, in
the Cambridge Textbook series, which discusses the origin of this
process in those languages.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637