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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Catalan /@/
Message-ID: <1995Jan15.234340.19796@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Organization: University of Chicago
References: <3fc05h$cir@gordon.enea.se>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 23:43:40 GMT
Lines: 24

In article <3fc05h$cir@gordon.enea.se> sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:

>Finally, how long ago did unstressed /a/ and /e/ merge? Or rather,
>does spellings such as "sense" or "escoltar", which are "senza"
>and "ascoltare" in Italian, reflect that there actually have been
>a pronounciation distinct from what "sensa" or "ascoltar" would
>have given? The same applies to -es as a plural ending for feminine
>words.

They haven't merged in all dialects.  In Valencian (and, I think,
Western Catalan in general), they are distinct, which is one
reason why they are distinguished in spelling.  Some argue that
this is the result of Castilian influence on Valencian and I don't
know enough Iberian historical linguistics to refute them.

On a similar note, Mallorcan has a stressed phoneme [@], distinct 
from [a] and [e].  I think it usually corresponds to Standard 
Catalan (i.e. Barcelonan) [e].  Mallorcan also distinguishes [b]
and [v], which have fallen together in Valencian, Catalan, and
Castilian.
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
