Cambridge University Press

978-0-521-71784-7 - Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction

Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
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Romance languages

Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen trace the changes that led from colloquial Latin to five
major Romance languages, those which ultimately became national or transnational
languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Trends in spoken
Latin altered or dismantled older categories in phonology and morphology, while
the regional varieties of speech, evolving under diverse influences, formed new
grammatical patterns, each creating its own internal regularities. Documentary
sources for spoken Latin show the beginnings of this process, which comes to full
fruition in the medieval emergence of written Romance languages. This book newly
distills the facts into an appealing program of study, including exercises, and makes
the difficult issues clear, taking well-motivated and sometimes innovative stands. It
provides not only an essential guide for those new to the topic, but also a reliable
compendium for the specialist.

TI ALKIRE is a senior lecturer in the Department of Romance Studies at Cornell

University. Besides historical Romance linguistics, his research interests include sty-
listics, translation theory, and current variation in French and Italian.

CAROL ROSEN is a professor of Linguistics and Romance Studies at Cornell University.

Her work in language typology, grammatical relations, and formal theory design
lends a special character to her research in Romance linguistics, ranging over histor-
ical and contemporary topics.

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Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-71784-7 - Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction
Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
Frontmatter
More information

Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen

Romance Languages
a historical introduction

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-71784-7 - Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction
Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
Frontmatter
More information

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521889155

© Ti Alkire, Carol Rosen, and Emily Scida 2010

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2010

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Alkire, Ti, 1961–
Romance languages : a historical introduction / Ti Alkire, Carol Rosen.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-521-88915-5 (hardback)
1. Romance languages–History. 2. Romance languages–Grammar.
I. Rosen, Carol G. II. Title.
PC45.A45 2010
440.09–dc22 2010007559

ISBN 978-0-521-88915-5 Hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-71784-7 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to
in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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978-0-521-71784-7 - Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction
Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
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Contents

Acknowledgements page ix

Introduction 1

1 The evolution of stressed vowels 5

1.1 Syllables and word stress in Latin 5
1.2 Stressed vowels: the (almost) pan-Romance seven-vowel system 8
1.3 Special developments in stressed vowels 19
1.4 The three Latin diphthongs 23
Exercises 24

2 Early changes in syllable structure and consonants 26

2.1 Prosthetic vowels 26
2.2 Syncope and new consonant clusters 28
2.3 Merger of /b/ and /w/ 31
2.4 Early consonant losses 33
2.5 In search of Popular Latin speech 36
Exercises 40

3 Consonant weakening and strengthening 44

3.1 Degemination 44
3.2 Lenition 45
3.3 Other consonant weakenings 48
3.4 Fortition 52
Exercises 53

4 New palatal consonants 56

4.1 About palatal articulation 56
4.2 Yods old and new 57

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978-0-521-71784-7 - Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction
Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
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vi Contents

4.3 Yods and the growth of new consonants 58

4.4 Charles and Charlotte 72
Exercises 74

5 More about vowels: raising, yod effects, and nasalization 77

5.1 Vowel raising in Italian 77
5.2 Yod effects in Spanish 80
5.3 Yod effects in French 86
5.4 Nasal vowels in French 91
Exercises 92

6 Verb morphology: the present indicative 95

6.1 Infinitives 95
6.2 Present indicative in Popular versus standard Latin 99
6.3 Present indicative in Italian 100
6.4 Present indicative in Spanish 102
6.5 Present indicative in French 103
6.6 Stem allomorphy in the present indicative 104
6.7 Paradigm leveling 112
6.8 Paradigm disleveling 116
6.9 A stem extender: -sc- 118
6.10 Some truly irregular verbs: be, have, go 119
Exercises 123

7 Verb morphology: systemic reorganization 127

7.1 Map of the Latin verb system 127
7.2 How Romance reorganizes the Latin system 130
7.3 Present indicative and present subjunctive 133
7.4 Imperfect indicative 140
7.5 Perfect indicative: Romance synthetic past 144
7.6 Imperfect subjunctive 158
7.7 Future subjunctive 162
7.8 Future and conditional 163
7.9 A bombshell: the birth of periphrastic perfects 169
7.10 The passive voice 174
7.11 Past participles old and new 176
Exercises 180

8 Noun and adjective morphology 185

8.1 The starting-point: Latin noun and adjective morphology 185
8.2 From five to three declension classes 186
8.3 From six to two cases 187
8.4 Romance noun and adjective morphology 188

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Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
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vii Contents

8.5 The neuter diaspora: from three to two genders 192

8.6 Toward gender marking 195
8.7 Imparisyllabic nouns and adjectives 196
8.8 Romance personal pronouns 198
8.9 Birth of the definite article 203
Exercises 206

9 History and structure of Portuguese: an overview 209

9.1 Stressed vowels: the seven-vowel system 209
9.2 More on stressed vowels: secondary diphthongs 212
9.3 More on stressed vowels: nasalization 215
9.4 Raising effects 217
9.5 Early changes in consonants 217
9.6 Consonant weakening and strengthening 219
9.7 New palatal consonants 222
9.8 Noun and adjective morphology 228
9.9 Verb morphology: infinitives 234
9.10 Verb morphology: present indicative 234
9.11 Paradigm leveling and disleveling 240
9.12 A stem extender: -sc- 240
9.13 Some truly irregular verbs: be, have, go 241
9.14 Verbs: old categories with inherited morphology 242
9.15 Verbs: new periphrastics 246
9.16 Verbs: other new categories 248
Exercises 250

10 History and structure of Romanian: an overview 252

10.1 Romanian vowels: diachrony and synchrony 252
10.2 Syllable structure: conservatism and innovation 260
10.3 Palatal influences on consonants 261
10.4 Other consonant changes 263
10.5 Present indicative and subjunctive 267
10.6 Verb morphology: systemic reorganization 274
10.7 Noun and adjective morphology 279
Exercises 284

11 Formation of the Romance lexicon 287

11.1 Lexical competition and replacement 287
11.2 Exploiting the derivational resources of Latin 289
11.3 Cycles of added and lost meaning 300
11.4 Reanalysis: how the mind remakes words 304
11.5 Loan words 306
Exercises 314

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Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
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viii Contents

12 Emergence of the Romance vernaculars 317

12.1 Language in the Carolingian world 317
12.2 The earliest Romance texts 323
12.3 Conclusion: from dialects to standards 330
Exercises 335

Notes 339
Glossary of linguistic terms 353
Suggestions for further reading 360
Works cited 364
Index 372

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978-0-521-71784-7 - Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction
Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen
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Acknowledgements

Like general linguistics, Romance linguistics in the modern sense of the term
traces its origins to the early decades of the nineteenth century. Given the weight
of the accumulated scholarship, any work on the present topic will necessar-
ily be derivative. In this book we do take some stands and venture some new
analyses, but our debt to earlier researchers is immeasurable, beyond what
our quotations and citations can convey.
We extend thanks to the colleagues who put their expertise at our dis-
posal: Wayles Browne, Diego de Acosta, Anton Goţia, Wayne Harbert, Adam
Ledgeway, Alan Nussbaum, Ştefan Oltean, Nigel Vincent, Michael Weiss, and
especially Emily Scida, who contributed the chapter on Portuguese. In the pro-
duction process the book benefited from the thoughtful and painstaking assist-
ance of Chris Jackson and Kimberly Page Will. Heartfelt thanks go also to David
Rosen for his concrete help and unflagging encouragement.

ix

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