Leyes fonéticas · Ley 1 · Vocales

Stressed short E breaks into ie

Ĕ (stressed)

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

Español

ie (open and closed syllables)

Francés

ie, i (open syllable); e (closed)

Italiano

ie (open syllable); e (closed)

Portugués

e [ɛ] (no diphthong)

Rumano

ie; ia before a or ă (piatră); fused with a preceding d, t (zece, țară)

Catalán

e [ɛ] (no diphthong); i next to a palatal (llit)

Qué ocurrió

Latin short Ĕ became an open [ɛ] in spoken Latin, and under stress it stretched and split into a glide plus vowel, ie. Spanish diphthongized it in every stressed syllable, open or closed; Italian and French only where the syllable ended in the vowel (an open syllable), keeping plain e before a consonant cluster. In French, ie was later often reduced to i, especially next to a palatal sound. Romanian broke it everywhere, like Spanish, then reshaped ie to ia before a following a or ă and merged the glide into a preceding d or t (zece, țară); Portuguese and Catalan never diphthongized it and keep an open [ɛ] (pé, pedra; peu, pedra).

Ejemplos

Latín	Italiano	Español	Francés	Portugués	Rumano	Catalán	Pariente en inglés
PETRAM‘stone’	pietra	piedra	pierre	pedra	piatră	pedra
PEDEM‘foot’	piede	pie	pied	pé	—	peu	pedal
MEL‘honey’	miele	miel	miel	mel	miere	mel
FERRUM‘iron (closed syllable)’	ferro	hierro	fer	ferro	fier	ferro	ferrous
DECEM‘ten’	dieci	diez	dix	dez	zece	deu	decimal
TERRAM‘earth, land’	terra	tierra	terre	terra	țară	terra	terrain
TEMPUS‘time’	tempo	tiempo	temps	tempo	timp	temps	temporal

Descodificador

Spanish or Romanian ie in a stressed syllable usually answers to plain e in a sister: tierra, fier → terre, terra, ferro. Italian ie points to Spanish ie too, and to French ie or i (piede, pie, pied; dieci, diez, dix); Portuguese and Catalan simply have e (pé, peu).

Excepciones

A following yod blocks the diphthong in Spanish (LECTUM → lecho, beside French lit and Italian letto) and raises the vowel to i in Catalan (llit), and Spanish ie shrank to i before a palatal (CASTELLUM → castiello → castillo). Italian has holdouts like bene (Spanish bien), usually put down to its frequent unstressed use; Romanian raised e to i before a nasal (timp). Learned words never diphthongize (pedal, terreno, temporal).

Míralo en acción: PEDEM

Qué ocurrió

Ejemplos

Descodificador

Excepciones

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