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Leggi fonetiche · Legge 5 · Vocali

AU becomes o

AU

Per ora le spiegazioni sono in inglese; gli esempi sono in tutte le lingue.

Spagnolo

o

Francese

o (spelled o or au)

Italiano

o

Portoghese

ou (said [o] in Brazil)

Rumeno

au (kept); ău unstressed

Catalano

o

Cosa è successo

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).

Esempi

LatinoItalianoSpagnoloFrancesePortogheseRumenoCatalanoParente inglese
AURUM‘gold’orooroorouroauror
LAUDĀRE‘to praise’lodareloarlouerlouvarlăudalloarlaud
CAUSAM‘cause, matter → thing’cosacosachosecoisa—cosacause
THĒSAURUM‘treasure’tesorotesorotrésortesouro—tresortreasure
PAUPEREM‘poor’poveropobrepauvrepobre—pobrepoor
AURICULAM (VL ORICLA)‘ear’orecchioorejaoreilleorelhaurecheorellaauricular

Chiave di decodifica

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.

Eccezioni

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.

Guardala in azione: AURICULAM

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