History of Portuguese - Historical Sound Changes

Historical Sound Changes

Both in morphology and in syntax, Portuguese represents an organic transformation of Latin without the direct intervention of any foreign language. The sounds, grammatical forms, and syntactical types, with a few exceptions, are derived from Latin, and almost 90% of its vocabulary is still derived from the language of Rome. Some of the changes began during the Empire, others took place later. A few words remained virtually unchanged, like carro, taberna ("tavern"), or even returned to a form close to the original, such as coxa ("thigh") – note, however, that in this case, only the spelling looks identical: Latin x and Portuguese x designate two completely different sounds, and respectively.

Learned Latinisms were formed in the late Middle Ages, due to the use of Church Latin by the Catholic Church, and during the Renaissance, when Classical antiquity in general, and Literary Latin in particular, enjoyed great prestige. Thus, for example, Latin aurum, which had originated ouro ("gold") and dourado ("golden"), was re-introduced as the adjective áureo ("golden"). In the same way, localem ("place"), which had evolved to lugar, was later re-introduced as the more erudite local. Many erudite Greek words and combining elements were also introduced or re-introduced in this way. Because of this, many Latin words are still familiar to Portuguese speakers.

N.B.: Note that the letter V was the vowel we know today as U, and that the C was always pronounced, so centum was originally pronounced . Later Latinisms are marked with (L).

Palatalization of voiceless stops—the consonants and assimilated with the high vowels and, and with the semivowel .

• centum > ento > ento > ento (hundred)
• facere > faere > faer > faer > faer (to do)

A more ancient evolution was

• fortiam > fora > fora (strength)

Voicing—some consonants did not disappear but rather evolved with voiceless stops becoming voiced stops and voiced stops becoming voiced fricatives in certain positions:

• mutum > mudo (mute)
• lacum > lago (lake)
• fabam > fava (broadbean)
• locustam > lagosta (lobster)

Assimilation—consonant clusters, especially double consonants, were simplified:

• guttam > gota (drop)
• peccare > pecar (to sin)

Elision—the consonants and of Vulgar Latin were deleted between vowels, after which sometimes the vowels around them coalesced, or an epenthetic semivowel was introduced between them.

• dolore > door > dor (pain); (L) doloroso (painful)
• bonum > bõo > bom (good)
• anellum > ãelo > elo (bond); (L) anel (ring)
• salire > sair (to get out)
• colare > coar (sift)
• notulam > nódoa (stain)
• catenam > cadeia (jail, chain); (L) cadena (jail, chain) (more erudite)

Palatalization of liquids and nasals—the consonants and assimilated with the semivowel, producing the palatals lh and nh :

• mulier > mulher (woman)
• iunium > junho (June)

Regressive Nasalization—before or which were elided, or in syllable coda, some vowels became nasal. This happened between the 6th and the 7th centuries, possibly influenced by Celtic languages previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. This change produced one of the most striking phonological differences between Portuguese and Spanish. The history of nasal vowels in hiatus with a previous or following vowel is complex, depending on the identity of the two vowels and the position of the stress.

1. If the vowels were near each other, they collapsed into a single vowel (nasal or oral, according to the nasality of the stressed vowel):

• bonum > bõo > bom (good)
• calentem > caẽte > quente (hot)
• ganadu > gãado > gado (cattle)
• lanam > lãa > lã (wool)

2. Otherwise, if the second vowel was more closed, the result was usually a nasal diphthong:

• manum > mão (hand)
• canem > cães (dogs)

3. If the second vowel was more open, or as open, nasalization was lost:

• lunam > lũa > lua (moon). Exception: una > ũa > uma (one)
• bonam > bõa > boa (good, fem.)
• plenum > chẽo > cheio (full)

4. If the first vowel was, however, nasalization evolved to a palatal nasal consonant, inserted between the two vowels:

• vinum > vĩo > vinho (wine)
• reginam > *ragina > raĩa > rainha (queen)

Progressive Nasalization—The spread of nasalization forward from a nasal consonant, especially .

• matrem > made > mae > mãe (mother)
• ad noctem > ãnoite > ãõte > ontem (yesterday).

Epenthesis—the insertion of a sound to break up a combination of vowels which was difficult to pronounce:

• arena > arẽa > areia (sand); (L) arena (arena)
• gallina > gala > galinha (chicken)
• vino > vo > vinho (wine)

Examples such as the former two have been used by some authors to argue that the digraph nh was a nasal glide in medieval Portuguese, and thus its pronunciation in most dialects of Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe is the original one

Dissimilation—Modification of a sound by the influence of neighbouring sounds; similar became different over time, so as to ease pronunciation.

1. Between vowels:

• locustam > lagosta (lobster)
• campanam > campãa > campa (tomb)

2. Between consonants:

• memorare > nembrar > lembrar (to remember); (L) memorizar (to memorize)
• animam > alma (soul); (L) animado (animated)
• localem > logar > lugar; (L) local (place)

Metathesis—a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. Semi-vowel metathesis:

• primarium > primeiro (first); (L) primário (primary)

Consonant metathesis in and :

• tenebras > teevras > trevas (darkness); this was rare in Portuguese; (L) tenebroso (dark)

Vowel metathesis:

• genuculum > ɡenoo > ɡẽoo > joeo (knee)