Article published in:
Variation within and across Romance Languages: Selected papers from the 41st Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Ottawa, 5–7 May 2011
Edited by Marie-Hélène Côté and Eric Mathieu
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 333] 2014
► pp. 77–100

Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr

| Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS 6039
This article is designed to show that muta cum liquida (branching onsets) enclose an empty nucleus (in case they are bipositional). Arguments come from two data sets. A compensatory lengthening is studied that has occurred in the evolution from Latin to Old French within a muta cum liquida: tr dr > rr, i.e., the loss of t d is accompanied by the gemination of r iff the preceding vowel is short (petra > pierre vs. paatre > père). In Tertenia Sardinian, it is argued that metathesis of r from the right to the left of the o in /sesø døormendu/ → srø ðørɔmmέndu; ndu (with ensuing gemination of the m on the position vacated) occurs in order to circumscribe the second of two empty nuclei (ø) in a row.
Published online: 17 December 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.333.07sch
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