Phonological history of Catalan

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This article is about the sound changes that happened from Latin to Catalan. For the socio-political history of the language, see History of Catalan.
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

As a member of the dialect continuum of Romance languages, Catalan displays linguistic features similar to those of its closest neighbors (Occitan, Aragonese). The following features represent in some cases unique changes in the evolution of Catalan from Vulgar Latin; other features are common in other Romance-speaking areas.

Phonology

Catalan is one of the

Ibero-Romance languages
in Spain; because these languages are significantly more conservative than French (which has been the most important influence over Occitan in the last several hundred years), most of the differences between Catalan and Occitan are due to developments in Occitan that did not occur in Catalan.

Common features with Western Romance languages

As a Western Romance language, Catalan shares the following features not found in

Italo-Romance
:

  • Voicing (and lenition) of intervocalic -p-, -t-, -c- into -b-, -d-, -g- (capra 'goat' > cabra, catēna 'chain' > cadena, secūrvs 'safe' > segur).
  • Loss of gemination in
    stop consonants
    .
  • Development of /ts/ (later /s/) instead of /tʃ/ from palatalized /k/. For example, caelvm ('sky, heaven') > Old Catalan cel /tsɛl/ > modern [ˈsɛɫ] (cf. Italian cielo /tʃɛlo/).
  • Development of c in ct, cs into palatal /j/ (vs. /tt/, /ss, ʃʃ/ in Italian).
  • Apicoalveolar pronunciation of /s/ and /z/. (This was once common to all Western Romance languages, but has since disappeared from French, some Occitan dialects, and Portuguese.[2]
    )

Common features with Gallo-Romance languages

Innovations:

Conserved features:

Common features with Occitano-Romance languages

Innovations:

  • Development of late-final /v/ into /u/ (vocalization): navem 'ship' > nau (cf. Occitan nau, French neuf, Old Spanish non-final nave); brevem 'brief' > breu (cf. Occitan breu, French bref, Old Spanish non-final breve).
  • Loss of word-final -n: panis ('bread') > pa, vinvm ('wine') > vi. (In some Occitan dialects, e.g. Provençal, the consonant was not lost.) Unlike in Languedoc and Northern Catalan, plural forms conserve this [n]: pans, vins.
  • Merger of Proto-Western-Romance /ð/ (from intervocalic -d-) and /dz/ (from intervocalic -ty-, -c(e)-, -c(i)-). The result was originally /z/ or /dz/, still preserved in Occitan and partly in Old Catalan,[dubious – discuss] but in modern Catalan now developed to /w/ or lost.

Conserved features:

Common features with Spanish, Portuguese, or French but not Occitan

  • Development of -au-, -ai- to /ɔ, e/ (monophthongization) rather than preservation as /au, ai/ (but Portuguese has /ou, ei/). For example, caulem 'cabbage' > col, paucum 'not much' > poc. (The same development occurred in French.)
  • Development of -x- /ks/, -scj- /skj/, -ssj- /ssj/ to [(j)ʃ] (also in Portuguese). Latin coxa 'thigh' > cuixa, Portuguese coxa vs. French cuisse. Latin laxāre 'to loosen' (later 'to let') > Catalan and Portuguese deixar, Old Spanish dexar, but French laisser, Old Occitan laisar. Latin bassiāre 'to lower' > Catalan and Portuguese baixar, Old Spanish baxar, but French baisser. (In Occitan dialects near Catalan and Gascon, there is palatization too: baishar, daishar.)

Conserved features shared by Catalan with Spanish and Portuguese:

  • Preservation of Western Romance /u/ and /o/ as [u] and [o]; (other) Gallo-Romance languages have changed these to [y] and [u], respectively. Latin (lūna) 'moon' > lluna [ˈʎunə] or [ˈʎuna/ɛ], Occitan luna [ˈlynɔ], French lune [lyn]. Latin (duplum) 'double' > doble [ˈdobːɫə] or [ˈdoβle], Spanish doble [ˈdoβle], Occitan doble [ˈduble], French double [dubl].

Innovations shared by Spanish and Catalan:

  • Intervocalic -ll- > ll [ʎ]: caballum ('horse') > cavall (cf. Spanish caballo with [ʎ] still preserved in conservative rural districts in Spain; Portuguese cavalo, Occitan caval, French cheval, all with simple /l/). In a few cases, /l/ appears as a result of early simplification of -ll- after a long vowel: vīlla 'town' > vila; st(r)ēlla 'star' > Western Catalan estrela, Eastern estrella (cf. Spanish estrella, Portuguese estrela < -ll- but French étoile < -l-).
  • Intervocalic -nn- > ny [ɲ]
  • Reduction of consonant cluster -mb- > m: camba 'leg' > cama, lumbum 'loin' > llom, columbum > colom (cf. Spanish lomo, palumba > paloma but Portuguese lombo, pombo/pomba). Occurs in some Occitan dialects (
    Gascon and southern Languedoc
    ).

Common features with Occitan, French, and Portuguese, but not Spanish

  • Initial /ɡ/ + yod or /e/ or /i/, /d/ + yod, /j/ > [dʒ]* > [ʒ] or [dʒ] (in contrast to Spanish [ʝ~ɟʝ] before stressed non-back vowels)

Conserved features:

  • Intervocalic /l/ + yod (-li-, -le-), -cl- > ll [ʎ] rather than j ([(d)ʒ] Old Spanish, [x] modern): muliere 'wife' > muller, oricla 'ear' > orella, veclu 'old' > vell. Cf. Spanish mujer, oreja, viejo (but Portuguese mulher, orelha, velho, Occitan molher, French oreille, vieil). The sound developed differently into /j/ in the east-central and balear varieties, known as 'iodització' (not to be confused with 'ieisme').
  • Development of -ct- only to /(j)t/ rather than further development to /tʃ/. Both Spanish and Middle Occitan have /tʃ/, but Gascon and Languedocian dialects near Catalan, French, and all other Ibero-Romance languages (Portuguese, Leonese, Aragonese) have /(j)t/. E.g. lactem > *lleit > llet (Cf. Spanish leche, Southern Occitan lach, Northern Occitan lait, Occitan near Catalan lèit, French lait, Portuguese leite).
  • The consonant that developed from initial /j/ or /ɡ/ + front vowel is preserved before unstressed non-back vowels in Catalan, in contrast to its loss in this context in Spanish: gelāre ('freeze') > gelar [ʒəˈɫa] or [dʒeˈɫa] (cf. Spanish helar /eˈlar/; but Portuguese, Occitan gelar). iectāre ('lay down') > *gieitar > gitar [ʒiˈta] or [dʒiˈta(ɾ)] (cf. Spanish echar; but Portuguese jeitar, Occitan gitar, French jeter).
  • Initial /f/ remains as such, whereas in Spanish it became /h/ (later lost) before a vowel (i.e. unless preceding /r/, /l/, /w/, /j/[
    Gascon
    actually develops /f/ into /h/ in all circumstances, even before consonants or semi-vowels.)
  • Voiced sibilants remain as such, whereas in Spanish they merge into voiceless sibilants.

Features not in Spanish or (most of) Occitan, but found in other minority Romance languages

Innovations:

  • Reduction of consonant cluster -nd- to -n- (ambulāre 'to stroll' > andar 'to go' > anar, mandāre 'to send, to lead' > manar). Compare reduction of -mb- to -m-. Also found in
    Gascon and southern Languedoc
    .
  • Astur-Leonese
    .

Unique features, not found elsewhere

Historical development

As a Romance language, Catalan comes directly from Vulgar Latin. As such, it shares certain phonological changes from Latin with other Romance languages:[3]

  • Intervocalic consonant lenition, similar to most of Western Romance languages:
    • Intervocalic sounds were often voiced (circa fifth century AD).
    • /b/ and /w/ between vowels became [v]. E.g. caballu > cavall "horse" (this later evolved to [β] in central, northern, and northwestern dialects).
    • /d/ became [ð] between vowels in Iberia, Gaul, Raetia, northern Italy, and a part of Sardinia.
    • Intervocalic pretonic /ɡ/ was deleted in most words.
    • In some cases other voiced stops were lost as well. E.g. volebat > volia "s/he wanted", pavore > pahor > por "awe".[4]
    • Geminate voiceless stops are simplified. E. g. bucca > boca "mouth", passare > passar [pəˈsa] ~ [paˈsar] "pass".[5]
  • The velars /k/ and /ɡ/ became palatalized before front vowels.
    • by the fourth century, palatalized /ɡ/ had become a palatal approximant /j/. When following a vowel and preceding a stressed vowel, this approximant became fused with the following front vowel: /maˈɡister/ > [maˈjɪster] > [maˈester] > [ˈmastiɾ]. In the Iberian peninsula, southwestern Gaul, and portions of Sardinia, Sicily, and southwestern Italy, this palatal approximant stage was retained while other dialects made different developments.
    • Palatalized /k/, which had developed a palatal offglide (i.e. [kʲj], continued to advance further forward in the mouth to become [tʲj] (which led to some confusion between /kj/ and /tj/). By the sixth or seventh century, this palatalized coronal had become an affricate ([tsʲ] or [ts]).
    • /sk/ was also part of this palatalization.
  • Before or after another consonant /l/ was velarized (leading to l-vocalization in some dialects). After consonants, this may have led to the realization of a palatal lateral in Spanish and Italian.
  • /kʷ/ became /k/ before /u/ and /o/ by the first century.
  • /h/ was deleted, first when medial and then in all contexts soon after.
  • /n/ became silent word-finally; nasalization on vowels (represented by m word-finally and n before /s/ and /f/[6]) is also lost.
  • /ks/ was reduced to /s/ before or after another consonant. By analogy, the prefix ex- before vowels may have also been pronounced /es/. Later on, /ks/ was also reduced word-finally except in monosyllabic words.
  • /sj/, /lj/ and /nj/ became palatal between vowels.
  • stressed /e/ and /i/, when immediately followed by a vowel of the penultimate syllable, became /j/; /u/ in the same environment became /w/.[7]
  • /ss/ after diphthongs and long vowels reduced to /s/ (degeminated): /kaːssus/ > /kaːsus/. There was just general confusion in regards to geminated consonants but they were normally retained after long vowels.[8]
  • Short /i/ and /u/ became [e] and [o], probably by the first century AD. Also, vowel quantity between short mid-vowels and long mid-vowels became differentiated: /deus/ > [dɛus].[9]
  • /n/, followed by a fricative (/f/, /ʒ/, /s/, or /v/), was deleted and replaced by the lengthening of the previous vowel: /kensor/ > /tʃeːsor/.[10]
  • Eventually (in Spain and parts of Gaul), all stressed vowels were pronounced long while unstressed vowels were short. The new long vowels were pronounced in most regions with diphthongization although Portugal, southern Gaul, Lombardy, and Sicily did not participate in this early breaking. The vowels most affected were /ɛː/ and /ɔː/.[10]
  • Vowels were often
    syncopated.[11]
    • between a labial and another consonant.
      • when such a deletion brought [aβ] to precede another consonant, it became [au].
    • between a consonant and a liquid or vice versa.
  • Like Occitan, loss of Latin final unstressed vowels, except -a; and then after some of the resulting consonantic groups a support vowel -e (pronounced [e] or [ə]) appears, e. g. fame > fam "hunger"; bucca > boca "mouth"; nostru > nostre "ours".[citation needed]
  • Loss of final -n after the demise of final unstressed vowels, e. g. manu > *man > mà "hand".[citation needed]
  • In Oriental dialects: Latin short e > closed [e], and Latin long e > neutral vowel [ə] and then later > open [ɛ]; so the final outcome of Latin short and long e is reversed in relation to other Romance languages.[citation needed]
  • Unlike Occitan and other Gallo-Romance languages, Catalan preserves the three degrees for rounded back vowels /ɔ o u/, and /u/ is not fronted to /y/.[citation needed]
  • Unlike
    Iberian Romance languages, betacism or loss of b/v distinction seems to be in Catalan an innovation since the modern era.[citation needed
    ]
  • Like Asturian, palatalization of Latin word initial l-; e.g. luna > lluna "moon"; lupu > llop "wolf".[citation needed]
  • Vocalization to [w] of final -d of diverse origins and the Latin verbal ending -tis: pede > peu [pɛw] "foot"; credit > creu [ˈkɾɛw] "he believes"; miratis > miratz > mirau > mireu [miˈɾɛw] "you watch".[citation needed]

References

  1. Riquer, Martí de
    , Història de la Literatura Catalana, vol. 1. Barcelona: Edicions Ariel, 1964
  2. JSTOR 412855
  3. ^ Grandgent (1907:106–137)
  4. ^ Enciclopèdia Catalana - Català - Gramàtica històrica - Sons - Interiors simples
  5. ^ Enciclopèdia Catalana - Català - Gramàtica històrica - Sons - Geminades
  6. ^ Cser, A. (2020). The Phonology of Classical Latin. Transactions of the Philological Society, 118, 1-218. p.34
  7. ^ Grandgent (1907:61–62)
  8. ^ Grandgent (1907:69, 105)
  9. ^ Grandgent (1907:71)
  10. ^ a b Grandgent (1907:72)
  11. ^ Grandgent (1907:99–102)

Bibliography

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