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Q Re: Sound Change (On Glide)

From:David J. Peterson <thatbluecat@...>
Date:Saturday, June 28, 2003, 20:40
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:

sentar "to sit" (stress on the /a/)

nosotros sentamos "we sit" (stress on the /a/)
yo siento "I sit" (stress on the /e/)

dormir "to sleep" (stress on the /i/)

nosotros dormimos "we sleep" (stress on the/i/)
yo duermo "I sleep" (stress on the /e/)

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.

My question: Does anyone have any examples of this happening in other languages
(nat or non)? I don't believe I've ever seen another example of this (though
I've seen countless where obstruents become palatalized before front vowels and
labialized before back vowels, resulting *kind of* in diphthongs with
on-glides), so I was wondering how it worked, and if it could work another way.

-David

Replies

Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
Juan A. Alonso <tervingo@...>
Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>