Latin verbal system: how perfect and aorist joined in the new perfect?

Nik Taylor fortytwo at ufl.edu
Tue Jun 1 08:38:35 UTC 1999


petegray wrote:

> For example, the common (in both senses) pronunciation
> of -au- as /o:/ is "extremely well attested".   Yet in Romance the vowel
> seems to have been not /o:/ but short /o/,

Certainly not in Spanish, at any rate.  causa became /ko:sa/, to /kosa/
(short /o/ became /O/), which survived as /kosa/, had it been /kosa/ in
Vulgar Latin, it would've become /kOsa/ in Old Spanish, and /kwesa/ in
Modern Spanish, which did not occur.  *Cuesa is not a word.

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