Diphthongization in Open and Closed Syllables
The stressed short E and O of Latin undergo diphthongization in many of the Western Romance languages. In Spanish this change occurs regardless of syllable shape (open or closed), in contrast to French and Italian, where it takes place only in open syllables, and in greater contrast to Catalan and Portuguese — neighboring languages on the Iberian Peninsula — where this diphthongization does not occur at all. As a result, Spanish phonology exhibits a five-vowel system, not the seven-vowel system that is typical of most other Western Romance languages.
| Spanish diphthongization in open and closed syllables | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syllable shape | Latin | Spanish | French | Italian | Catalan | Portuguese |
| Open | petra, focus | piedra, fuego | pierre, feu | pietra, fuoco | pedra, foc | pedra, fogo |
| Closed | festa, porta | fiesta, puerta | fête, porte | festa, porta | festa, porta | festa, porta |
Read more about this topic: History Of Spanish, Internal History
Famous quotes containing the words open, closed and/or syllables:
“This declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world ... and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Don: Why are they closed? They’re all closed, every one of them.
Pawnbroker: Sure they are. It’s Yom Kippur.
Don: It’s what?
Pawnbroker: It’s Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday.
Don: It is? So what about Kelly’s and Gallagher’s?
Pawnbroker: They’re closed, too. We’ve got an agreement. They keep closed on Yom Kippur and we don’t open on St. Patrick’s.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)