Leggi fonetiche · Legge 2 · Vocali

Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / eu

Ŏ (stressed)

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

Spagnolo

ue (open and closed syllables)

Francese

eu, œu (open syllable); o (closed)

Italiano

uo (open syllable); o (closed)

Portoghese

o [ɔ] (no diphthong)

Rumeno

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

Catalano

o [ɔ] (no diphthong)

Cosa è successo

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).

Esempi

Latino	Italiano	Spagnolo	Francese	Portoghese	Rumeno	Catalano	Parente inglese
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

Chiave di decodifica

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.

Eccezioni

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).

Guardala in azione: FOCUM

Cosa è successo

Esempi

Chiave di decodifica

Eccezioni

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