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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

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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
Published online: 17 December 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.333.07sch
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.
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