Читать книгу An Outline of the Phonology and Morphology of Old Provençal - C. H. Grandgent - Страница 13

22. The vowels of Vulgar Latin are a, ẹ, ę, ị, į, ọ, ǫ, ụ, ų, with the diphthongs áu and úi; the old æ and œ had become identical in sound with ę and ẹ. As early as the 3d century of our era, į was changed, in nearly all the Empire, to ẹ, and thus became identical with the vowel coming from original ē. A little later, perhaps, ų, in the greater part of the Empire, became ọ, thus coinciding with the vowel that was originally ō. Ypsilon, in words taken from the Greek, was identified, in early borrowings, with Latin u; in later ones, with Latin i: βύρσα ＞ Pr. borsa, γῠρος ＞ Pr. girs. Omicron, which apparently had the close sound in Greek, generally (but not always) retained it in recently borrowed words in Vulgar Latin: τόρνος ＞ tọrnus (cf. Pr. tọrn), but κόλαφος ＞ cŏlăphus = cọlapus or cǫlapus (cf. Pr. cǫlp).

The development of the Vulgar Latin vowels in Provençal will now be examined in detail:—