3 ms·
Also <b> and <v> have merged in a lot of versions of Spanish. The <v> is postclassical but represents /w/. A minimal pair for these in Latin is bis 'twice' and
by schoen 7y ago
Also <b> and <v> have merged in a lot of versions of Spanish. The <v> is postclassical but represents /w/. A minimal pair for these in Latin is bis 'twice' and vis 'force'. (Well, not quite, because of different vowel lengths... let's try bilis 'bile' and vilis 'vile'.)
- mumblemumble 7y agoSo, I can't speak to Spanish, but I can speak to French. There, the suffixes that are silent in Metropolitan French are still pronounced in some regional dialects, but the grammar doesn't really change (that I've noticed). That leads me to think that it could just as easily be that grammar changes render the agglutination superfluous, and it subsequently withers away like a vestigial organ.