Sound laws · Law 15 · Clusters

CT

Spanish

ch [tʃ]

French

it (i + t)

Italian

Portuguese

it (i + t)

Romanian

Catalan

it, t (the i absorbed by the vowel: nit, fet)

What happened

In the western half of the Romance world, the k of CT weakened to a palatal glide [j], giving it. Spanish then fused i + t into the affricate ch; French and Portuguese kept the i as part of a vowel or diphthong (nuit, noite; lait, leite), and Catalan mostly absorbed it into the vowel (nit, fet). Italian took the other road and assimilated k to the t, giving a double tt. Romanian turned the k into a lip consonant: CT → pt (see velar-to-labial).

Examples

Latin	Italian	Spanish	French	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan	English relative
NOCTEM‘night’	notte	noche	nuit	noite	noapte	nit	nocturnal
OCTŌ‘eight’	otto	ocho	huit	oito	opt	vuit	octave
LACTEM (classical LAC)‘milk’	latte	leche	lait	leite	lapte	llet	lactose
FACTUM‘done, deed’	fatto	hecho	fait	feito	fapt	fet	fact
TĒCTUM‘roof’	tetto	techo	toit	teto	—	—
LECTUM‘bed’	letto	lecho	lit	leito	—	llit

Decoder

Spanish ch = Italian tt = French and Portuguese it = Romanian pt: noche, notte, nuit, noite, noapte; ocho, otto, huit, oito, opt. English often shows the original ct: nocturnal, octave, fact.

Exceptions

Learned words keep ct (or c) everywhere: nocturno, lácteo, acto; nocturne, lactique; notturno, lattico. Spanish lecho and Portuguese leito are now literary for 'bed' (cama is everyday). Portuguese teto (older tecto) has lost the i after e; Romanian fapt is a noun, 'fact, deed'.

Watch it happen: NOCTEM

What happened

Examples

Decoder

Exceptions

In your word bank