From: Nik Taylor (fortytwo@gdn.net)
Date: Mon Jan 15 2001 - 15:50:50 EST
RomĂ¡n now has an eighth vowel, /i-/ (i-bar, high central unrounded
vowel). This vowel has three origins, short i, short u, and schwa
(which was descended from short a) - schwa was often lost previous to
merging with /i-/, so that, for instance, _rĂ´mĂ¢na_ became RomĂ¡n. /i-/
is written as ì or Ă¹ (Ă® and Ă» when stressed), ì when descended from
short i, Ă¹ when from short u or a. When written as ì, it causes
palatization in _c_ and _g_, when written as _Ă¹_ it does not. Thus,
_legìs_ = /'ledzi-s/, but _legĂ¹_ = /'leGi-/ (of the law, of the laws).
There may also develop initial mutations, as in Celtic, but an
independent development.
First Declension
S P
Nom -- -as
Gen -e -Ă¡i (<-Ă¡Ă¬ < -Ă¡rì < -Ă¢rum)
Acc -- -as
Genetive plural may be -Ă©, not sure if there'll be a second /aj/ -> /e/
change.
Second Declension
S P
Nom -Ă¹s --*
Gen --* -Ă³i
Acc -Ă¹ -os
*umlaut in stem
Third Declension
S P
Nom (var) -es
Gen -ìs -Ă¹
Acc -è -es
I'm contemplating this being an earlier stage, however, and producing a
merger of /i/ and /i-/ by Modern RomĂ¡n. In that case, they'd probably
just write all occurences of /i/ as {i}, e.g., -is for Nom Sing of 2nd
Decl.
-- ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42
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