Vowel Alternations
Romanian has a broad process of alternating between a mid vowel and a "low" vowel: /e̯a/ alternates with /e/, /o̯a/ with /o/, and /a/ with /ə/.
Originally, this was the result of a phonological process wherein mid vowels (Balkan Latin, by this time, had merged the long and short mid vowels) lowered to and under stress; a subsequent change diphthongized these vowels. This has resulted in stress alternations, as shown in the examples below, where stressed vowels and diphthongs are highlighted in bold:
| Stressed | Unstressed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a - ə | carte | 'book' | cărticică | 'book' (diminutive) |
| casă | 'house' | căsuță | 'house' (diminutive) | |
| e̯a - e | beat | 'drunk' | bețiv | 'drunkard' |
| seară | 'evening' | înserat | 'dusk' | |
| o̯a - o | poartă | 'gate' | portar | 'gatekeeper' |
| coastă | 'rib' | costiță | 'rib' (diminutive) | |
This has since been morphologized and now shows up in verb conjugations and nominal inflection (e.g. oaste/oști, 'army'/'armies')
Read more about this topic: Romanian Phonology, Vowels
Famous quotes containing the word vowel:
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)