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On 2010-02-02 Elliott Lash wrote:
>>> On the rather stubby WP page on Oscan someone has written:>>>> >>>> "Short u generally remains unchanged. After t, d, n, the soundbecomes that of iu. Long /u:/ generally remains unchanged. It may have changed to an /i:/ sound for final syllables.">>>> >>>> To me this seems to imply that Oscan *u(:) was fronted.What's your take on that? Not meaning to upset yourcreativity, just a reflection.
Actually, I take this as indicating palatalization of /t/ /d/ /n/ before /u/. This is just like British pronunciation of <tune> as more like /tjun/. In New Oscan this /t/ > /tS/, /d/ > /dZ/ and /n/ goes to /nj/ in this environment (unless the vowel preceding it is low and then it becomes /j/. So for example, tiurr� > ciurre /tSurri/ 'tower'.
But English /ju/ spelled _u_ corresponds to the Middle English rendering of French /y/, which may either originally have been borrowed as [y] or replaced by ME /iu/ as the closest native equivalent of French /y/ already at the time of borrowing; i.e. there was a palatal segment -- a diphthong starting in a front vowel or even a front rounded monophthong -- after the /t d n/, which would be a requirement for palatalization: only something palatal can cause palatalization, after all! Which is not to say that rounded front vowels can't become back vowels again: at least /y/ can break into /iu/, which is what I think happened in pre-Oscan. Cf. also Old English _cyrice_ > _church_, though that is probably [Y] becoming [U] rather than [y] becoming [u]: those lax high vowels are usually a bit centralized, which I think would be a requirement for 'backing'. The tense high front position is the 'sink' towards which all 'sliding' in the vowel space goes. The only way a tense high front vowel may change into something else is probably diphthongization of some kind. This is because of the anatomy of the mouth and the motor dynamics of the tongue. I suspect Oscan _u_ was [y] or [u\], and _�_ was [u]. Your run-of-the-mill fronting of /u/ with subsequent rising of /o/ as in Greek, Welsh, Swedish, French and probably many more langauges. /BP