At 4:02:12 PM on Monday, July 2, 2007, Rick McCallister
wrote:
> Latin ba:sium vs. Modern Romance forms such as Spanish
> beso, Portuguese beija, French baiser, Italian bacio seems
> to skew either the vowel, the sibillant or both.
> What's happening?
> Is it a yod phenomenon?
Yes, according to the references that I have on hand. Using
<y> for yod, /sy/ preceded by a vowel yields Port. /z^/
(<j>). In most VCy groups the yod affects either the V or
the C but not both, but Vsy is one of the exceptions, and
/ay/ gives Port. <ai> or <ei>, whence <beijo>. In French
/sy/ > /yz/, and /ay/ then becomes OFr /ai/; in Spanish
/sy/ > /ys/, and /ay/ > /e/.
I've no decent source for Italian historical phonology. One
of the minimal sources on hand says that Italian /sy/
regularly yields /z^/, spelled <gi>, the yod not affecting
the preceding vowel, so that one would indeed expect *bagio
(as in <cagione> from <occa:sio:, -o:nis>). Another seems
to suggest that in some cases it became /s^/, and that /c^/
is a non-Tuscan hypercorrection stemming from a Tuscan
tendency to deaffricate /c^/ to /s^/.
Brian