On Fri, 18 Oct 2002 06:57:21 -0000, "Piotr Gasiorowski"
<
piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>The
>Latin diphthongs <oe> and <ae> varied a great deal after <c->
>(<coelum ~ caelum> 'sky'), and already in the time of the Empire they
>merged with each other and with long /e:/ (cf. <caenum ~ coenum ~
>ce:num> 'filth' or hypercorrect <caeno: ~ coeno:> for older
><ce:no:> 'dine'), in this context as well as in others, first in
>rural Latin and then universally (<Phe:bus> for <Phoebus>, etc.).
Latin <oe> and <e:> merged as /e:/ (later merging with short <i> to /e/, except
in Sardinia), whereas the normal development of <ae> is to open /E:/ (later
merging with short <e> to /E/). Of course there was no way to accurately
reflect the difference between /E(:)/ and /e(:)/ in the spelling.
In a small number of words, assumed to have passed through "rural Latin", <ae>
does merge with <e:> and <oe> and gives Romance closed /e/.
Classical "Rural" Western Eastern Sardo
a a a a a
a: a(:) a a a
e E E E e
ae e(:) E E e
e: e(:) e e e
oe e(:) e e e
i I e e i
i: i(:) i i i
o O O O o
o: o(:) o o o
u U o u u
u: u(:) u u u
au o(:) au,O au a
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...