Leyes fonéticas · Ley 5 · Vocales

AU becomes o

Por ahora, las explicaciones de esta sección están en inglés; los ejemplos están en todas las lenguas.

Español

Francés

o (spelled o or au)

Italiano

Portugués

ou (said [o] in Brazil)

Rumano

au (kept); ău unstressed

Catalán

Qué ocurrió

The Latin diphthong AU closed into a single o in Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan; rustic Latin already wavered (CAUDA beside CODA, CLAUDIUS beside CLODIUS). French shows the change came late there: in CAUSAM → chose, the c turned to ch as before an a, so the word still began ca- when French palatalized it. Portuguese stopped halfway at ou, still written though Brazilians mostly say [o]; Romanian kept the diphthong (aur).

Ejemplos

Latín	Italiano	Español	Francés	Portugués	Rumano	Catalán	Pariente en inglés
AURUM‘gold’	oro	oro	or	ouro	aur	or
LAUDĀRE‘to praise’	lodare	loar	louer	louvar	lăuda	lloar	laud
CAUSAM‘cause, matter → thing’	cosa	cosa	chose	coisa	—	cosa	cause
THĒSAURUM‘treasure’	tesoro	tesoro	trésor	tesouro	—	tresor	treasure
PAUPEREM‘poor’	povero	pobre	pauvre	pobre	—	pobre	poor
AURICULAM (VL ORICLA)‘ear’	orecchio	oreja	oreille	orelha	ureche	orella	auricular

Descodificador

Where English, Romanian or a learned word has au, the everyday word in the western sisters usually has o (Portuguese ou): aur → oro, or, ouro; treasure (thesaurus) → tesoro, tesouro.

Excepciones

Learned words keep au: causa, aurora, pausa (es/it/pt/ca), cause, aurore (fr), giving doublets like cosa/causa. Words whose AU had already become o in Vulgar Latin show o or u even in Romanian (ORICLA → ureche, CODA → coadă). French pauvre is pronounced [povʁ]: the au there is a later Latinizing spelling, not a surviving diphthong; Portuguese coisa comes from older cousa.

Míralo en acción: AURICULAM

Qué ocurrió

Ejemplos

Descodificador

Excepciones

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