Lleis fonètiques · Llei 30 · Consonants

Portuguese loses single N between vowels

-N- (single, between vowels)

De moment, les explicacions d’aquesta secció són en anglès; els exemples són en totes les llengües.

Espanyol

n kept

Francès

n kept between vowels; at the end, a nasal vowel

Italià

n kept

Portuguès

lost, nasalizing the vowel (lã, mão); later often oral (lua, boa) or nh (vinho)

Romanès

n kept; a before it raised to â (lână, mână)

Català

n kept; lost where it became final (mà; see final-n)

Què va passar

In the same period that it dropped -l-, Portuguese (with Galician) dropped a single n between vowels, but not before passing its nasality to the vowel in front: LĀNAM → lã, MANUM → mão. Where a back vowel followed, the nasal vowel often merged with it and lost its nasality (LŪNAM → lũa → lua, BONAM → boa, CORŌNAM → coroa); after i the nasal resurfaced as a palatal nh (VĪNUM → vĩo → vinho). The other sisters keep n between vowels; Romanian raised the vowel before it (lână, mână), and Catalan lost it only where it ended up at the end of the word.

Exemples

Llatí	Italià	Espanyol	Francès	Portuguès	Romanès	Català	Parent anglès
LĀNAM‘wool’	lana	lana	laine	lã	lână	llana
MANUM‘hand’	mano	mano	main	mão	mână	mà	manual
LŪNAM‘moon’	luna	luna	lune	lua	lună	lluna	lunar
BONAM‘good (fem.)’	buona	buena	bonne	boa	bună	bona
CORŌNAM‘crown (ro cunună 'wreath')’	corona	corona	couronne	coroa	cunună	corona	crown
TENĒRE‘to hold → to have’	tenere	tener	tenir	ter	ține	tenir
VĪNUM‘wine’	vino	vino	vin	vinho	vin	vi

Descodificador

A Portuguese tilde (ã, õ) or a hiatus like -oa, -ua often hides a lost n: mão → mano, mână; lã → lana; coroa → corona. Portuguese -inho can be plain -ino elsewhere: vinho → vino.

Excepcions

Portuguese learned words keep n (lunar, coronário, manual), and so do words where the n was double in Latin (ANNUM → ano, PANNUM → pano), since NN simplified only after the loss. The masculine of 'good' kept its nasal vowel at the end of the word: bom beside boa.