Metaphony

Metaphonie is in the Romance languages ​​generally used term for a spread in the Romance languages ​​form of the umlaut. It is the origin for the regressive distance assimilations, in which a preceding vowel medium has changed by a subsequent closed vowel ( mostly Latin -I or -U).

In the Italian dialects the Metaphonie is particularly common, they appeared almost everywhere, except in the Tuscan. Thus, about the Lombard quest " this " to quist " this " because the fallen -i has the previous -e- metaphoniert: questi > quisti > quist ( similar processes in German: father / fathers, Old High German hospitality / gesti "guests" etc.). In southern Italy can often be distinguished from the singular - plural forms only by the umlaut, such as pedi "foot" vs. pidi "feet" in the Sicilian. In Spanish, the Metaphonie plays a significant role in the verbal inflection: it is from Latin METIO Spanish mido " I measure ". Here's the "i", which was originally an "e" was influenced by the following -I. Similarly, Latin DORMIUT " he slept " > Spanish durmió, here is the original "o" to "u " because an "i" follows. In Romanian the Metaphonie plays a significant role in the formation of the plural, such as Rumanian. Para " pear" / pere ' pear ', Masa (< Latin MENSA "table" ) / mese " tables ", etc.