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 SPAIN

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SPAIN

under the accent; e remained unless closed to i by a following palatal or labial element of the accented syllable (as in simicUe, "seed", Lat. semens, seniSn- tem; iffual, "equal", Lat. oequalis-em, V. L. equalem); i generally was preserved, but through dissimilation from accented Lat. I it sometimes became p {viciniis, -uin, Span, vecino); o remained and V. L. au became o, but a preceding or following palatal (Lat. jocari, V. L. iiicnir, Span. jHffar, "to play"; dor- iiiiindu»i, Span. durmiendo, "sleep- ing") could close the o to u and by dissimilation from a following ac- cented o the unac- cented <> could become e {fnniio:<its- iim, Span. Iwriiioso, " beautiful "). In the medial position a as a rule remained {arms, analcm, Sjjan. dnade, "duck"); the other vowels were lost in the popular pronunciation, but in certain cases, of doubtfid popu- lar origin, they appear to have been kept in order to present the juxtaposition of consonants not easily pro- nounced together (Incrlma, Span. Idgrima, "tear"). In a great variety of cases analogy has interfered with the strictly phonological development of the Latin vowels into Spanish. Later borro^\nngs have conformed either not at all, or only in part, to the laws of popular development.

For the greater part the syllable entitled to the stress in Latin has retained it in Spanish: in the verb conjugation, however, no few exceptions are en- countered. These are chiefly due to the operation of analogj': hence the dislocation of the accent in the 1st and 2nd persons plural of imperative tenses {amahdmus, but Span, amdbamos, to accord with amdba, amdba,i, iimdhan). For obviously convenient purposes the Spanish Academy has devised a system of written accents. Or<linarily the mere aspect of the word is a sufhcient index to the place of the syl- lable stress, since, properly, words ending in a vowel or in n or s stress the second last syllable, while those ending in a con.sonant (except n or s) stress the last syllable: all words violating these two leading prin- ciples and all stressing any syllable except the last or second last re(iuire the written accent (e. g. amign, "friend"; salud, "health"; aman, "they love"; llevas, "thou bearcst": but hajd, "bashaw"; htiesped, "guest"; nacidn, "nation"; interns, "interest"; huirjano, "orphan").

Excepting such notable cases as g (before e or i) and c (before e or i), the V. L. consonants were practi- cally those of classic Latin. As for the vowels, so for the V. L. consonants, their lot in Spanish being de- pendent upon their being in the initial, the medial, or the final position. In the initial position they resisted change to a large degree; in the medial posi- tion they simplified, if double, .and in general they displayed a tendency to adapt themselves to the surrounding vocalic conditions (e. g. single voiceless consonants voiced, certain voiced consonants were absorbed, etc.); in the final position their enunciation sometimes became so weak as to lead to their dis- appearance. While the modern .Spanish vowels have preserved much of the sonority of their Latin originals, the consonants have greatly weakened in the force and precision of their utterance; even re- XIV.— 13

fined and careful speakers often fail now to pro- nounce the intervocalic d of the past participial ending in amado, etc., which for them become amao (or amau), etc. At the beginning of the words these V. L. consonants remain: p, b, t, d, c (before a, o, u, or t), g (before a, o, », or r), I, r, m, n, s, v (as in padre, bebe from blbit, lanto from tantum, dar from dare, cadena from catena, etc). While in the Old Spanish period, i. e. down to the fifteenth century, the initial 6 remained the stop or explosive (like English 6) that it was in Latin, it has become in more recent times a bilabial spirant and as such is now co-equal with the Spanish !', which early gained this value both ini- tially and medially. Still, if pronounced with empha^ sis in the initial position and everywhere after m and n, the b and i' both have the stop sound. The d, too, initially, medially', and at the end of the word, has lost much of its explosive energy and become prac- tically a spirant; in fact in the final position it is sel- dom heard in popular prommciation. The initial r has a well-rolled trill of the tongue and is equivalent to the intervocalic rr, while the linal r like the medial single r or r after a consonant, (except n, s, I) has a feebler sound; even this latter, however, is stronger than the ordinary English r. Latin initial h was valueless in V. L.and usually was not written in Old Spanish (Lat. habere, O. Sji. aver, modern haber); its appearance in the modern speech is due to an unnec- essary etymological restoration.

A characteristic change in really popular words is that of Latin initial / (except before /, r and («■) into a strong aspirate h sounrl, still incorrectly denoted by / in the Old Spanish period. Later on h was sub- stituted in writing for this iispirate /, and still later, like the original Lat. h, this one lo.st all sound (Lat. ferrum, O. Sp. fierro, modern hierro). There is no real reason for supposing, as has been done, that this transformation of Lat. / was the result of an Ibe- rian or Celto-Iberian inability to pronounce initial /. Before r and we (from Lat. 6) and also, in quite a number of cases not well understood before any sound, the /remains, as in Latin, a labio-dental spi- rant (English /). When followed by I the history of / was like that of c and g: the result for all three was a palatalized / which soon began to be represented by // (approximate to li inEngli.sh "filial": flamma, iSpan. lla- ma, clamare, Span. llamar, etc.). There are cases of the re- tention of the /and ■p(flor,planla,('\c.). Before c or i, ghi\<\ already in V. L., like Lat. / and like Lat. d before an c or an i in hiatu.<, the value of //; in all cases this y dis- ai)peared before unaccented e and i (grrrnatius-iim, O. .Sp. crmario, mod- ern hermano with

meaningless /;, etc.), before an accented e or i or the other unaccented or accented vowels the y might remain (gener, generum. Span, yrrtin; jacel: .Span, yace, etc.) or become in O. Sp. a/ (English / .sound) which in the modern speech has developed into a velar sound {jam, magis. Span, jnmds). Before e (Lat. e, rr, 6P) and i the r had .already begun to .assibilate in Latin itself; in O. Sp. it yielded the voiceless dental sibilant