Masters

HISP 607. Assignment #2 for 2/23 12aImh
Using at least two sources (e.g. Lausberg and/or Mendeloff (on website) and/or Hall 1976 (on reserve)), discuss with examples the major Romance languagereflexes of the following medial sequences:
1. -kei- and -gei-
2. -ny-, -nn-, -mn-, -gn-
3. -ly-, -lt-
4. -ct-, -c’l-, -t’l-
1. -kei- and -gei- Velar palatalization evolved when it was followedby front vowels /i/ and /e/ or by the yod [j] in proto-romance it was an allophone of /i/ (Hall, 1976). The voiceless velar evolved from /k/>/ts/. Example from (Hall, 1976); Kera>tsera
When voicelessstop /k/ was in intervocalic position Hall’s findings show a different result than expected. The findings showed /k/> /ʣ/, not /ʦ/ : *fakere >haʣer
Another change that occurred was the voicing ofconsonants in an intervocalic position but not in the palatalization environment, for example /k/>/g/, e.g., *drakone ―dragón,
Another occurrence is when voiceless velars before front vowels whenpreceded by a consonant. *dulke >dulʦe; *kreskere kreʦer : the velar /k/>palatoalveolar affricate /ʦ/.
II. The voiced velar /g/ in initial environment in Spanish has different results. According toHall’s data, /g/>/h/, /j/, /ʤ/ or it disappears
i. *gingiua> enʦia (/g/ disappears)
ii. *gelare> ʤelar
iii. *gelu> hielo
iv. *generu >jerno
Another environment to add is voiced velar /g/ initialbefore back vowels. For instance
*gula> gola =it remains the same. In intervocalic position before front vowel /g/>falls away completely. The change for /g/ before /i/ or /e/ should be /ʤ/, as thischange occurred throughout Western Romance languages.

In conclusion: /k/ and /g/ were palatalized and later assibilated in some regions, thus becoming the affricatives /ts/ and /ʤ/, (Mendeloff,1969). They were maintained before I & e in the central Sardinian dialects such as logudores and in primitive borrowings from latin in (berberisco, vasque, Celtic, Germanic, Lebanese, and Greek)...