Leyes fonéticas · Ley 2 · Vocales

Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / eu

Ŏ (stressed)

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

Español

ue (open and closed syllables)

Francés

eu, œu (open syllable); o (closed)

Italiano

uo (open syllable); o (closed)

Portugués

o [ɔ] (no diphthong)

Rumano

o; oa [o̯a] when a or e follows (poartă, moarte)

Catalán

o [ɔ] (no diphthong)

Qué ocurrió

The counterpart of the open-e change: Latin short Ŏ became an open [ɔ], which under stress split into a rising diphthong. Spanish made it ue in every stressed syllable; Italian made it uo only in open syllables. French also diphthongized it in open syllables, but its uo then fronted and fused into the single rounded vowel written eu or œu ([ø], [œ]). Portuguese and Catalan kept a plain open [ɔ]; Romanian kept o but broke it into oa when an a or e followed in the next syllable (poartă, moarte), a change that also caught long Ō (FLŌREM → floare).

Ejemplos

Latín	Italiano	Español	Francés	Portugués	Rumano	Catalán	Pariente en inglés
NOVUM‘new’	nuovo	nuevo	neuf	novo	nou	nou	novel
FOCUM‘hearth → fire’	fuoco	fuego	feu	fogo	foc	foc	focus
OVUM‘egg’	uovo	huevo	œuf	ovo	ou	ou	oval
PORTAM‘door, gate’	porta	puerta	porte	porta	poartă	porta	portal
FORTEM‘strong (ro foarte 'very')’	forte	fuerte	fort	forte	foarte	fort	fort
MORTEM‘death’	morte	muerte	mort	morte	moarte	mort	mortal

Descodificador

Spanish ue in a stressed syllable is Latin o: try o in Portuguese, Catalan, and in Italian and French when a consonant cluster follows (puerta → porta, porte), uo and eu when a single consonant follows (nuevo → nuovo, neuf). Romanian oa is the same o before a or e: poartă = porta.

Excepciones

A following yod blocks the Spanish diphthong (NOCTEM → noche, OCULUM → ojo, FOLIAM → hoja), and a nasal blocks the French one (BONUM → bueno, bon, buono). Italian has holdouts (NOVEM → nove, beside nueve, neuf), and modern Italian often drops the u after a palatal (figliolo, spagnolo). Portuguese marks the open vowel only by pronunciation (novo [ˈnovu] but nova [ˈnɔvɐ], by metaphony). Learned words keep o (novela, moral).

Míralo en acción: FOCUM

Qué ocurrió

Ejemplos

Descodificador

Excepciones

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