Južnoslovenski Filolog (Jan 2018)

Vowel breaking in Dalmatian Romance derivatives in Ĕ́LLU,-A (on Balkan Latin XII)

  • Ligorio Orsat L.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2298/JFI1801031L
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 74, no. 1
pp. 31 – 59

Abstract

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Vowel breaking in Dalmatian Romance appears to have evolved in two phases and, in Montenegro, Serbo-Croatian ‘relics’ of Dalmatian Romance derivatives in -Ĕ́LLU, -A appear to show two distinct outcomes of the Ĕ́, namely Serbo-Croatian *ě“ > je“ and (i)ja“. The paper purports that je“-relics continue phase I of the vowel breaking, i.e. Ĕ́> *i̭é, and that (i)ja“-relics continue phase II of the process, i.e. *ié >*iá. From the data, it would appear that phase I was all-Dalmatian, being well documented throughout Dalmatia, and that phase II was specifically Montenegrin, being by and large attested in Montenegro (and Veglia, in Vegliot, where it has long since been documented and recognised as such). [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 178007: Etimološka istraživanja srpskog jezika i izrada Etimološkog rečnika srpskog jezika]

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