Editing Romance languages (section)

== Sound changes ==
{{Main|Phonological changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance}}
{{See also|Vulgar Latin}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2023}}

=== Consonants ===
Significant [[sound change]]s affected the consonants of the Romance languages.

==== Apocope ====
<!-- The following could use some examples. -->
There was a tendency to eliminate final consonants in Vulgar Latin, either by dropping them ([[apocope]]) or adding a vowel after them ([[epenthesis]]).

Many final consonants were rare, occurring only in certain prepositions (e.g. {{lang|la|ad}} "towards", {{lang|la|apud}} "at, near (a person)"), conjunctions ({{lang|la|sed}} "but"), demonstratives (e.g. {{lang|la|illud}} "that (over there)", {{lang|la|hoc}} "this"), and nominative singular noun forms, especially of neuter nouns (e.g. {{lang|la|lac}} "milk", {{lang|la|mel}} "honey", {{lang|la|cor}} "heart"). Many of these prepositions and conjunctions were replaced by others, while the nouns were regularized into forms based on their oblique stems that avoided the final consonants (e.g. *{{lang|la|lacte}}, *{{lang|la|mele}}, *{{lang|la|core}}).

Final ''-m'' was dropped in Vulgar Latin.<ref name="Gabriel, Gess, Meisenburg">{{Cite book |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110550283/html |title=Manual of Romance Phonetics and Phonology |year=2021|publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-055028-3 |editor-last=Gabriel |editor-first=Christoph |page=229 |doi=10.1515/9783110550283 |hdl=1983/44e3b3cd-164e-496b-a7a6-6b3a492e4c48 |s2cid=243922354 |editor-last2=Gess |editor-first2=Randall |editor-last3=Meisenburg |editor-first3=Trudel |access-date=2023-09-06 |archive-date=2023-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906182812/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110550283/html |url-status=live }}</ref> Even in [[Classical Latin]], final {{lang|la|-am}}, {{lang|la|-em}}, {{lang|la|-um}} ([[suffix#Inflectional suffixes|inflectional suffixes]] of the [[accusative case]]) were often [[elision|elided]] in [[meter (poetry)|poetic meter]], suggesting the {{lang|la|m}} was weakly pronounced, probably marking the [[nasal vowel|nasalisation]] of the vowel before it. This nasal vowel lost its nasalization in the Romance languages except in monosyllables, where it became {{IPA|/n/}} e.g. Spanish {{lang|es|quien}} < ''quem'' "whom",<ref name="Gabriel, Gess, Meisenburg" /> French {{lang|fr|rien}} "anything" < ''rem'' "thing";{{sfn|Boyd-Bowman|1980|p= 133}} note especially French and Catalan {{lang|fr|mon}} < ''meum'' "my (m.sg.)" which are derived from monosyllabic {{IPA|/meu̯m/}} > *{{IPA|/meu̯n/, /mun/}}, whereas Spanish disyllabic {{lang|es|mío}} and Portuguese and Catalan monosyllabic {{lang|pt|meu}} are derived from disyllabic {{IPA|/ˈme.um/}} > *{{IPA|/ˈmeo/}}.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

As a result, only the following final consonants occurred in Vulgar Latin:
* Final {{lang|la|-t}} in third-person singular verb forms, and {{lang|la|-nt}} (later reduced in many languages to ''-n'') in third-person plural verb forms.{{sfn|Maiden|2016|page=500}}
* Final {{lang|la|-s}} (including {{lang|la|-x}}) in a large number of morphological endings (verb endings {{lang|la|-ās/-ēs/-īs/-is}}, {{lang|la|-mus}}, {{lang|la|-tis}}; nominative singular {{lang|la|-us/-is}}; plural {{lang|la|-ās/-ōs/-ēs}}) and certain other words ({{lang|la|trēs}} "three", {{lang|la|sex}} "six", {{lang|la|crās}} "tomorrow", etc.).
* Final {{lang|la|-n}} in some monosyllables (often from earlier {{lang|la|-m}}).
* Final {{lang|la|-r}}, {{lang|la|-d}} in some prepositions (e.g. {{lang|la|ad}}, {{lang|la|per}}), which were [[clitic]]s{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} that attached phonologically to the following word.
* Very occasionally, final {{lang|la|-c}}, e.g. [[Occitan language|Occitan]] {{lang|oc|oc}} "yes" < ''hoc'', [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|avuec}} "with" < ''apud hoc'' (although these instances were possibly protected by a final [[epenthesis|epenthetic]] vowel at one point).

Final {{lang|la|-t}} was eventually lost in many languages, although this often occurred several centuries after the Vulgar Latin period. For example, the reflex of {{lang|fro|-t}} was dropped in [[Old French]] and [[Old Spanish]] only around 1100. In Old French, this occurred only when a vowel still preceded the {{lang|fro|t}} (generally {{IPA|/ə/}} < Latin {{lang|la|a}}). Hence ''amat'' "he loves" > Old French {{lang|fro|aime}} but ''venit'' "he comes" > Old French {{lang|fro|vient}}: the {{IPA|/t/}} was never dropped and survives into Modern French in [[liaison (French)|liaison]], e.g. {{lang|fr|vient-il?}} "is he coming?" {{IPA|/vjɛ̃ti(l)/}} (the corresponding {{IPA|/t/}} in ''aime-t-il?'' is analogical, not inherited). Old French also kept the third-person plural ending {{lang|fro|-nt}} intact.

In Italo-Romance and the [[Eastern Romance languages]], eventually all final consonants were either lost or protected by an epenthetic vowel, except for some articles and a few monosyllabic prepositions ''con'', ''per'', ''in''. Modern Standard Italian still has very few consonant-final words, although Romanian has resurfaced them through later loss of final {{IPA|/u/}} and {{IPA|/i/}}. For example, ''amās'' "you love" > ''ame'' > Italian {{lang|it|ami}}; ''amant'' "they love" > *''aman'' > Ital. {{lang|it|amano}}. On the evidence of "sloppily written" [[Lombardic language]] documents, however, the loss of final {{IPA|/s/}} in northern Italy did not occur until the 7th or 8th century, after the Vulgar Latin period, and the presence of many former final consonants is betrayed by the [[syntactic gemination]] (''raddoppiamento sintattico'') that they trigger. It is also thought that after a long vowel {{IPA|/s/}} became {{IPA|/j/}} rather than simply disappearing: ''nōs'' > ''noi'' "we", ''crās'' > ''crai'' "tomorrow" (southern Italy).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sampson |first=Rodney |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/423583247 |title=Vowel prosthesis in Romance: a diachronic study |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-954115-7 |series=Oxford linguistics |location=Oxford |oclc=423583247}}</ref> In unstressed syllables, the resulting diphthongs were simplified: ''canēs'' > *{{IPA|/ˈkanej/}} > ''cani'' "dogs"; ''amīcās'' > *{{IPA|/aˈmikaj/}} > ''amiche'' {{IPA|/aˈmike/}} "(female) friends", where nominative ''amīcae'' should produce ''**amice'' rather than ''amiche'' (note masculine ''amīcī'' > ''amici'' not ''*amichi'').

Central [[Western Romance languages]] eventually regained a large number of final consonants through the general loss of final {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}, e.g. Catalan {{lang|ca|llet}} "milk" < ''lactem'', {{lang|ca|foc}} "fire" < ''focum'', {{lang|ca|peix}} "fish" < ''piscem''. In French, most of these secondary final consonants (as well as primary ones) were lost before around 1700, but tertiary final consonants later arose through the loss of {{IPA|/ə/}} < ''-a''. Hence masculine ''frīgidum'' "cold" > Old French {{lang|fro|froit}} {{IPA|/'frwεt/}} > ''froid'' {{IPA|/fʁwa/}}, feminine ''frīgidam'' > Old French {{lang|fro|froide}} {{IPA|/'frwεdə/}} > ''froide'' {{IPA|/fʁwad/}}.

==== Palatalization ====
{{Main|Palatalization in the Romance languages}}
In Romance languages the term 'palatalization' is used to describe the phonetic evolution of velar stops preceding a front vowel and of consonant clusters involving yod or of the palatal approximant itself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barbato |first=Marcello |date=20 June 2022 |title=The Early History of Romance Palatalizations |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.750 |access-date=11 September 2023 |website=oxfordre.com |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.750 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5 |archive-date=18 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918110528/https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-750 |url-status=live }}</ref> The process involving gestural blending and articulatory reinforcement, starting from [[Late Latin]] and Early Romance, generated a new series of consonants in Romance languages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Recasens |first=Daniel |date=30 July 2020 |title=Palatalizations in the Romance Languages |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.435 |access-date=11 September 2023 |website=oxfordre.com |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.435 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5 |archive-date=18 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918110527/https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-435 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Lenition ====
<!-- The following could use some examples. -->
[[Stop consonant]]s shifted by [[lenition]] in Vulgar Latin in some areas.

The voiced [[labial consonant]]s {{IPA|/b/}} and {{IPA|/w/}} (represented by {{angbr|b}} and {{angbr|v}}, respectively) both developed a [[voiced bilabial fricative|fricative]] {{IPA|[β]}} as an intervocalic allophone.<ref>Pope (1934).</ref> This is clear from the orthography; in medieval times, the spelling of a consonantal {{angbr|v}} is often used for what had been a {{angbr|b}} in Classical Latin, or the two spellings were used interchangeably. In many Romance languages (Italian, French, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.), this fricative later developed into a {{IPA|/v/}}; but in others (Spanish, Galician, some Catalan and Occitan dialects, etc.) reflexes of {{IPA|/b/}} and {{IPA|/w/}} simply merged into a single phoneme.{{sfn|Alkire|Rosen|2010|pp=32–33}}

Several other consonants were "softened" in intervocalic position in Western Romance (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Northern Italian), but normally not phonemically in the rest of Italy (except some cases of "elegant" or Ecclesiastical words),{{Clarification needed|date=March 2024}} nor apparently at all in Romanian. The dividing line between the two sets of dialects is called the [[La Spezia–Rimini Line]] and is one of the most important [[isogloss]] bundles of the Romance dialects.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marotta |first=Giovanna |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-romance-linguistics/phonetics-and-phonology/31D83420153A0D7655CFE38EF54CF443 |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-108-48579-1 |editor-last=Ledgeway |editor-first=Adam |series=Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics |pages=181–318 |chapter=Structure of the Syllable – 5.5.3 Lenition |doi=10.1017/9781108580410.006 |editor-last2=Maiden |editor-first2=Martin}}</ref> The changes (instances of diachronic lenition resulting in [[phonological change|phonological restructuring]]) are as follows:
Single voiceless plosives became [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]: ''-p-, -t-, -c-'' > ''-b-, -d-, -g-''. Subsequently, in some languages they were further weakened, either becoming [[fricative]]s or [[approximant consonant|approximants]], {{IPA|[β̞], [ð̞], [ɣ˕]}} (as in Spanish) or disappearing entirely (such as {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/k/}} lost between vowels in French, but {{IPA|/p/}} > {{IPA|/v/}}). The following example shows progressive weakening of original /t/: e.g. ''vītam'' > Italian ''vita'' {{IPA|[ˈviːta]}}, Portuguese ''vida'' {{IPA|[ˈvidɐ]}} (European Portuguese {{IPA|[ˈviðɐ]}}), Spanish ''vida'' {{IPA|[ˈbiða]}} (Southern Peninsular Spanish {{IPA|[ˈbi.a]}}), and French ''vie'' {{IPA|[vi]}}. Some scholars have speculated that these sound changes may be due in part to the influence of [[Continental Celtic languages]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martinet |first=André |date=1952 |title=Celtic lenition and Western Romance consonants |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/410513 |journal=Language |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=214–217 |doi=10.2307/410513 |jstor=410513 |access-date=2022-11-26 |archive-date=2022-11-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126165155/https://www.jstor.org/stable/410513 |url-status=live }}</ref> while scholarship of the past few decades has proposed internal motivations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cravens |first=Thomas D. |title=Comparative historical dialectology: Italo-Romance clues to Ibero-Romance sound change |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |year=2002}}</ref>
* The voiced plosives {{IPA|/d/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} tended to disappear.
* The plain [[sibilant consonant|sibilant]] ''-s-'' {{IPA|[s]}} was also voiced to {{IPA|[z]}} between vowels, although in many languages its spelling has not changed. (In Spanish, intervocalic {{IPA|[z]}} was later devoiced back to {{IPA|[s]}}; {{IPA|[z]}} is only found as an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/s/}} before voiced consonants in Modern Spanish.)
* The [[geminate consonant|double]] plosives became single: ''-pp-, -tt-, -cc-, -bb-, -dd-, -gg-'' > ''-p-, -t-, -c-, -b-, -d-, -g-'' in most languages. Subsequently, in some languages the voiced forms were further weakened, either becoming fricatives or approximants, {{IPA|[β̞], [ð̞], [ɣ˕]}} (as in Spanish). In French spelling, double consonants are merely etymological, except for -ll- after -i (pronounced [ij]), in most cases.
* The double sibilant ''-ss-'' {{IPA|[sː]}} also became phonetically and phonemically single {{IPA|[s]}}, although in many languages its spelling has not changed. Double sibilant remains in some [[languages of Italy]], like Italian, Sardinian, and Sicilian.

The sound /h/ was lost but later reintroduced into individual Romance languages. The so-called ''h aspiré'' "aspirated h" in French, now completely silent, was a borrowing from [[Frankish language|Frankish]]. In Spanish, word-initial /f/ changed to /h/ during its [[Old Spanish|Medieval stage]] and was lost afterwards (for example ''farina'' > ''harina'').{{sfn|Alkire|Rosen|2010|p=34}} Romanian acquired it most likely from the adstrate.<ref name="Sala">{{Cite book |last=Sala |first=Marius |title=De la Latină la Română |publisher=Editura Pro Universitaria |year=2012 |isbn=978-606-647-435-1 |page=157 |trans-title=From Latin to Romanian}}</ref>

[[Geminate consonant|Consonant length]] is no longer phonemically distinctive in most Romance languages. However some [[languages of Italy]] (Italian, [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]], Sicilian, and numerous other varieties of central and southern Italy) do have long consonants like {{IPA|/bb/, /dd/, /ɡɡ/, /pp/, /tt/, /kk/, /ll/, /mm/, /nn/, /rr/, /ss/}}, etc., where the doubling indicates either actual length or, in the case of [[plosive consonants|plosives]] and [[affricate]]s, a short hold before the consonant is released, in many cases with distinctive lexical value: e.g. ''note'' {{IPA|/ˈnɔte/}} (notes) vs. ''notte'' {{IPA|/ˈnɔtte/}} (night), ''cade'' {{IPA|/ˈkade/}} (s/he, it falls) vs. ''cadde'' {{IPA|/ˈkadde/}} (s/he, it fell), ''caro'' {{IPA|/ˈkaro/}} (dear, expensive) vs. ''carro'' {{IPA|/ˈkarro/}} (cart, car). They may even occur at the beginning of words in [[Romanesco dialect|Romanesco]], Neapolitan, Sicilian and other southern varieties, and are occasionally indicated in writing, e.g. Sicilian ''cchiù'' (more), and ''ccà'' (here). In general, the consonants {{IPA|/b/}}, {{IPA|/ts/}}, and {{IPA|/dz/}} are long at the start of a word, while the [[archiphoneme]] {{IPA|<nowiki>|R|</nowiki>}}{{dubious|date=May 2017}} is realised as a [[trill consonant|trill]] {{IPA|/r/}} in the same position. In much of central and southern Italy, the affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ weaken synchronically to fricative [ʃ] and [ʒ] between vowels, while their geminate congeners do not, e.g. ''cacio'' {{IPA|/ˈkatʃo/ → [ˈkaːʃo]}} (cheese) vs. ''caccio'' {{IPA|/ˈkattʃo/ → [ˈkattʃo]}} (I chase). In Italian the geminates /ʃʃ/, /ɲɲ/, and /ʎʎ/ are pronounced as long [ʃʃ], [ɲɲ], and [ʎʎ] between vowels, but normally reduced to short following pause: ''lasciare'' 'let, leave' or ''la sciarpa'' 'the scarf' with [ʃʃ], but post-pausal ''sciarpa'' with [ʃ].

A few languages have regained secondary geminate consonants. The double consonants of [[Piedmontese language|Piedmontese]] exist only after stressed {{IPA|/ə/}}, written ''ë'', and are not etymological: ''vëdde'' (Latin ''vidēre'', to see), ''sëcca'' (Latin ''sicca'', dry, feminine of ''sech''). In standard Catalan and Occitan, there exists a geminate sound {{IPA|/lː/}} written ''ŀl'' (Catalan) or ''ll'' (Occitan), but it is usually pronounced as a simple sound in colloquial (and even some formal) speech in both languages.

==== Vowel prosthesis ====
In [[Late Latin]] a [[prothesis (linguistics)|prosthetic]] vowel /i/ (lowered to /e/ in most languages) was inserted at the beginning of any word that began with {{IPA|/s/}} (referred to as ''s impura'') and a voiceless consonant (#sC- > isC-):{{sfn|Alkire|Rosen|2010|p=26}}
* ''scrībere'' 'to write' > Sardinian ''iscribere'', Spanish ''escribir'', Portuguese ''escrever'', Catalan ''escriure'', Old French ''escri(v)re'' (mod. ''écrire'');
* ''spatha'' "sword" > Sard ''ispada'', Sp/Pg ''espada'', Cat ''espasa'', OFr ''espeḍe'' (modern ''épée'');
* ''spiritus'' "spirit" > Sard ''ispìritu'', Sp ''espíritu'', Pg ''espírito'', Cat ''esperit'', French ''esprit'';
* ''Stephanum'' "Stephen" > Sard ''Istèvene'', Sp ''Esteban'', Cat ''Esteve'', Pg ''Estêvão'', OFr ''Estievne'' (mod. ''Étienne'');
* ''status'' "state" > Sard ''istadu'', Sp/Pg ''estado'', Cat ''estat'', OFr ''estat'' (mod. ''état'').
While Western Romance words fused the prosthetic vowel with the word, cognates in Eastern Romance and southern Italo-Romance did not, e.g. Italian ''scrivere'', ''spada'', ''spirito'', ''Stefano'', and ''stato'', Romanian ''scrie'', ''spată'', ''spirit'', ''Ștefan'' and ''stat''. In Italian, syllabification rules were preserved instead by vowel-final articles, thus feminine ''spada'' as ''la spada'', but instead of rendering the masculine ''*il stato'', ''lo stato'' came to be the norm. Though receding at present, Italian once had a prosthetic {{IPA|/i/}} maintaining /s/ syllable-final if a consonant preceded such clusters, so that 'in Switzerland' was ''in'' {{IPA|[i]}}''Svizzera''. Some speakers still use the prothetic {{IPA|[i]}} productively, and it is fossilized in a few set locutions such as ''in ispecie'' 'especially' or ''per iscritto'' 'in writing' (a form whose survival may have been buttressed in part by the word ''iscritto'' < Latin ''īnscrīptus'').

=== Stressed vowels ===
==== Loss of vowel length, reorientation ====
<!-- Setting the default font to Arial Unicode MS should make the IPA work out-of-the-box in IE-->
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em; text-align:center;"
|+ Evolution of stressed vowels in early Romance
|-
! colspan="3"| Classical !! Sardinian !! Eastern Romance
! colspan="2" |Proto-<br />Romance !! Western Romance!! Sicilian
|-
! Acad.<sup>1</sup> !! Roman !! [[Help:IPA|IPA]]
! colspan="2" |[[Help:IPA|IPA]]!! Acad.<sup>1</sup>
![[Help:IPA|IPA]]
! colspan="2" |IPA
|-
! ''ī''
| long ''i'' || {{IPA|/iː/}} || rowspan="4" | {{IPA|/i/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/i/}}|| rowspan="2" | '''ị''' || rowspan="2" | *{{IPA|/i/}}|| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/i/}} || rowspan="6" | {{IPA|/i/}}
|-
! ''ȳ''
| long ''y'' || {{IPA|/yː/}}
|-
! ''i (ĭ)''
| short ''i'' || {{IPA|/ɪ/}}
| rowspan="4" |{{IPA|/e/}}|| rowspan="2" | '''į'''|| rowspan="2" | *{{IPA|/ɪ/}}|| rowspan="4" | {{IPA|/e/}}
|-
! ''y (y̆)''
| short ''y'' || {{IPA|/ʏ/}}
|-
! ''ē''
| long ''e'' || {{IPA|/eː/}}|| rowspan="4" | {{IPA|/ɛ/}}
| rowspan="2" |'''ẹ'''|| rowspan="2" | *{{IPA|/e/}}
|-
! ''oe''
| ''oe'' || {{IPA|/oj/}} > {{IPA|/eː/}}
|-
! ''e (ĕ)''
| short ''e'' || {{IPA|/ɛ/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/ɛ/}}|| rowspan="2" | '''ę''' || rowspan="2" | *{{IPA|/ɛ/}}|| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɛ/}} || rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɛ/}}
|-
! ''ae''
| ''ae'' || {{IPA|/aj/}} > {{IPA|/ɛː/}}
|-
! ''ā''
| long ''a'' || {{IPA|/aː/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/a/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/a/}}|| rowspan="2" | '''a''' || rowspan="2" | *{{IPA|/a/}}|| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/a/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/a/}}
|-
! ''a (ă)''
| short ''a'' || {{IPA|/a/}}
|-
! ''o (ŏ)''
| short ''o'' || {{IPA|/ɔ/}}
| rowspan="3" |{{IPA|/ɔ/}}|| rowspan="3" | {{IPA|/o/}} || '''ǫ''' || {{IPA|*/ɔ/}}|| {{IPA|/ɔ/}} || {{IPA|/ɔ/}}
|-
! ''ō''
| long ''o'' || {{IPA|/oː/}}|| rowspan="2" | '''ọ''' || rowspan="2" | *{{IPA|/o/}}|| rowspan="3" | {{IPA|/o/}} || rowspan="4" | {{IPA|/u/}}
|-
! ''au''<br />''(a few words)''
| ''au'' || {{IPA|/aw/}} > {{IPA|/ɔː/}}
|-
! ''u (ŭ)''
| short ''u'' || {{IPA|/ʊ/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/u/}}|| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/u/}}
|'''ų'''|| *{{IPA|/ʊ/}}
|-
! ''ū''
| long ''u'' || {{IPA|/uː/}} || '''ụ'''|| *{{IPA|/u/}}|| {{IPA|/u/}}
|-
! ''au''<br />''(most words)''
| ''au'' || {{IPA|/aw/}}
|{{IPA|/aw/}}
|{{IPA|/aw/}}
| '''au'''
|*/aw/|| {{IPA|/aw/}}
|{{IPA|/aw/}}
|-
| colspan="9" | <sup>1</sup> Traditional academic transcription in Latin and [[Romance studies]], respectively.
|}
One profound change that affected Vulgar Latin was the reorganisation of its [[vowel]] system.{{sfn|Alkire|Rosen|2010|p=8}} Classical Latin had five short vowels, ''ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ'', and five [[vowel length|long vowels]], ''ā, ē, ī, ō, ū'', each of which was an individual [[phoneme]] (see the table in the right, for their likely pronunciation in IPA), and four [[diphthong]]s, ''ae'', ''oe'', ''au'' and ''eu'' (five according to some authors, including ''ui''). There were also long and short versions of ''y'', representing the [[close front rounded vowel|rounded vowel]] {{IPA|/y(ː)/}} in Greek borrowings, which however probably came to be pronounced {{IPA|/i(ː)/}} even before Romance vowel changes started.

There is evidence that in the imperial period all the short vowels except ''a'' differed by quality as well as by length from their long counterparts.<ref>Allen (2003) states: "There appears to have been no great difference in quality between long and short ''a'', but in the case of the close and mid vowels (''i'' and ''u'', ''e'' and ''o'') the long appear to have been appreciably closer than the short." He then goes on to the historical development, quotations from various authors (from around the second century AD), as well as evidence from older inscriptions where "e" stands for normally short ''i'', and "i" for long ''e'', etc.</ref> So, for example ''ē'' was pronounced [[close-mid vowel|close-mid]] {{IPA|/eː/}} while ''ĕ'' was pronounced [[open-mid vowel|open-mid]] {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, and ''ī'' was pronounced [[close vowel|close]] {{IPA|/iː/}} while ''ĭ'' was pronounced [[near-close vowel|near-close]] {{IPA|/ɪ/}}.

During the Proto-Romance period, phonemic length distinctions were lost. Vowels came to be automatically pronounced long in stressed, [[open syllable]]s (i.e. when followed by only one consonant), and pronounced short everywhere else. This situation is still maintained in modern Italian: ''cade'' {{IPA|[ˈkaːde]}} "he falls" vs. ''cadde'' {{IPA|[ˈkadde]}} "he fell".

The Proto-Romance loss of phonemic length originally produced a system with nine different quality distinctions in monophthongs, where only original {{IPA|/a aː/}} had merged.{{sfn|Alkire|Rosen|2010|p=13}} Soon, however, many of these vowels coalesced:
* The simplest outcome was in [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]],<ref>Technically, Sardinian is one of the [[Southern Romance languages]]. The same vowel outcome occurred in a small strip running across southern Italy (the ''Lausberg Zone''), and is thought to have occurred in the Romance languages of northern Africa.</ref> where the former long and short vowels in Latin simply coalesced, e.g. {{IPA|/ɛ eː/}} > {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, {{IPA|/ɪ iː/}} > {{IPA|/i/}}: This produced a simple five-vowel system {{IPA|/a ɛ i ɔ u/}}.{{sfn|Ledgeway|Maiden|2016|p=471}}
* In most areas, however (technically, the [[Italo-Western languages]]), the near-close vowels {{IPA|/ɪ ʊ/}} lowered and merged into the high-mid vowels {{IPA|/e o/}}. As a result, Latin ''pira'' "pear" and ''vēra'' "true", came to rhyme (e.g. Italian and Spanish ''pera, vera'', and [[Old French]] ''poire, voire''). Similarly, Latin ''nucem'' (from ''nux'' "nut") and ''vōcem'' (from ''vōx'' "voice") become Italian ''noce, voce'', Portuguese ''noz, voz'', and French ''noix, voix''. This produced a seven-vowel system {{IPA|/a ɛ e i ɔ o u/}}, still maintained in conservative languages such as Italian and Portuguese, and lightly transformed in Spanish (where {{IPA|/ɛ/ > /je/, /ɔ/ > /we/}}).
* In the [[Eastern Romance languages]] (particularly, [[Romanian language|Romanian]]), the front vowels {{IPA|/ĕ ē ĭ ī/}} evolved as in the majority of languages, but the back vowels {{IPA|/ɔ oː ʊ uː/}} evolved as in Sardinian. This produced an unbalanced six-vowel system: {{IPA|/a ɛ e i o u/}}. In modern Romanian, this system has been significantly transformed, with {{IPA|/ɛ/ > /je/}} and with new vowels {{IPA|/ə ɨ/}} evolving, leading to a balanced seven-vowel system with central as well as front and back vowels: {{IPA|/a e i ə ɨ o u/}}.{{Sfn|Sala|2012|p=146}}
* [[Sicilian language|Sicilian]] is sometimes described as having its own distinct vowel system. In fact, Sicilian passed through the same developments as the main bulk of Italo-Western languages. Subsequently, however, high-mid vowels (but not low-mid vowels) were raised in all syllables, stressed and unstressed; i.e. {{IPA|/e o/ > /i u/}}. The result is a five-vowel {{IPA|/a ɛ i ɔ u/}}.{{sfn|Ledgeway|Maiden|2016|p=471}}

Further variants are found in southern Italy and Corsica, which also boasts a completely distinct system.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Outcome of stressed Classical Latin vowels in dialects of southern Italy, Sardinia and Corsica{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
!Classical Latin
!Proto-Romance
!Senisese
!Castel-mezzano
!Neapolitan
!Sicilian
!Verbi-carese
!Caro-vignese
!Nuorese Sardinian
!Southern Corsican
!Taravo Corsican
!Northern Corsican
!Cap de Corse
|-
|'''ā'''
| rowspan="2" |*{{IPA|/a/}}
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="3" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
| rowspan="2" |/a/
|-
|'''ă'''
|-
|'''au'''
|*/aw/
|/ɔ/?
|/o/?
|/ɔ/?
|/ɔ/?
|/ɔ/?
|/ɔ/?
|/ɔ/
|/o/?
|/ɔ/?
|/o/?
|-
|'''ĕ''', '''ae'''
|*{{IPA|/ɛ/}}
| rowspan="2" |/ɛ/
| rowspan="3" |/e/
|/ɛ/
|/ɛ/
|/ɛ/
| rowspan="3" |/ɛ/
| rowspan="2" |/ɛ/
| rowspan="2" |/e/
| rowspan="2" |/e/
|/ɛ/
|/e/ (/ɛ/)
|-
|'''ē''', '''oe'''
|*{{IPA|/e/}}
| rowspan="2" |/e/
| rowspan="3" |/i/
|/ɪ/ (/ɛ/)
| rowspan="2" |/e/
| rowspan="2" |/e/
|-
|'''ĭ'''
|*{{IPA|/ɪ/}}
| rowspan="2" |/i/
| rowspan="2" |/ɪ/
| rowspan="2" |/i/
| rowspan="2" |/i/
|/ɛ/
|-
|'''ī'''
|*{{IPA|/i/}}
|/i/
|/i/
|/i/
|/i/
|/i/
|/i/
|-
|'''ŏ'''
|*{{IPA|/ɔ/}}
| rowspan="2" |/ɔ/
| rowspan="2" |/o/
|/ɔ/
|/ɔ/
|/ɔ/
| rowspan="3" |/ɔ/
| rowspan="2" |/ɔ/
| rowspan="2" |/o/
| rowspan="2" |/o/
|/ɔ/
| rowspan="3" |/o/
|-
|'''ō''', ('''au)'''
|*{{IPA|/o/}}
| rowspan="2" |/o/
| rowspan="3" |/u/
|/ʊ/ (/ɔ/)
| rowspan="2" |/o/
|-
|'''ŭ'''
|*{{IPA|/ʊ/}}
| rowspan="2" |/u/
| rowspan="2" |/u/
| rowspan="2" |/ʊ/
| rowspan="2" |/u/
| rowspan="2" |/u/
|/ɔ/
|-
|'''ū'''
|*{{IPA|/u/}}
|/u/
|/u/
|/u/
|/u/
|/u/
|}

The Sardinian-type vowel system is also found in a small region belonging to the [[Lausberg area]] (also known as ''[[Heinrich Lausberg|Lausberg]] zone''; compare {{slink|Neapolitan language|Distribution}}) of southern Italy, in southern [[Basilicata]], and there is evidence that the Romanian-type "compromise" vowel system was once characteristic of most of southern Italy,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Loporcaro |first=Michele |title=The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 1, Structures |year=2011 |editor-last=Maiden |chapter=Phonological Processes |display-editors=et al}}</ref> although it is now limited to a small area in western Basilicata centered on the [[Castelmezzano dialect]], the area being known as {{lang|de|Vorposten}}, the German word for 'outpost'. The [[Sicilian vowel system]], now generally thought to be a development based on the Italo-Western system, is also represented in southern Italy, in southern [[Cilento]], [[Calabria]] and the southern tip of [[Apulia]], and may have been more widespread in the past.{{sfn|Ledgeway|2016|page=248ff}}

The greatest variety of vowel systems outside of southern Italy is found in Corsica, where the Italo-Western type is represented in most of the north and center and the Sardinian type in the south, as well as a system resembling the Sicilian vowel system (and even more closely the Carovignese system) in the [[Cap Corse]] region; finally, in between the Italo-Western and Sardinian system is found, in the [[Taravo]] region, a unique vowel system that cannot be derived from any other system, which has reflexes like Sardinian for the most part, but the short high vowels of Latin are uniquely reflected as mid-low vowels.<ref name="corsican">{{Cite book |last=Dalbera-Stefanaggi |first=Marie-Josée |title=La langue corse |date=2002 |publisher=Presses universitaires de France |isbn=978-2-13-052946-0 |edition=1st |location=Paris}} Compare [http://languagehat.com/written-language-quiz/#comment-1722395 comment 1 at the blog Language Hat] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206092334/http://languagehat.com/written-language-quiz/#comment-1722395 |date=2021-02-06 }} and [http://languagehat.com/written-language-quiz/#comment-2030506 comment 2] .</ref>

The Proto-Romance allophonic vowel-length system was phonemicized in the [[Gallo-Romance languages]] as a result of the loss of many final vowels. Some northern Italian languages (e.g. [[Friulian language|Friulian]]) still maintain this secondary phonemic length, but most languages dropped it by either diphthongizing or shortening the new long vowels.

French phonemicized a third vowel length system around AD 1300 as a result of the sound change /VsC/ > /VhC/ > {{IPA|/VːC/}} (where ''V'' is any vowel and ''C'' any consonant). This vowel length began to be lost in Early Modern French, but the long vowels are still usually marked with a circumflex (and continue to be distinguished regionally, chiefly in Belgium). A fourth vowel length system, still non-phonemic, has now arisen: All nasal vowels as well as the oral vowels {{IPA|/ɑ o ø/}} (which mostly derive from former long vowels) are pronounced long in all stressed [[closed syllable]]s, and all vowels are pronounced long in syllables closed by the voiced fricatives {{IPA|/v z ʒ ʁ vʁ/}}.

==== Latin diphthongs ====
The Latin diphthongs {{lang|la|ae}} and {{lang|la|oe}}, pronounced {{IPA|/aj/}} and {{IPA|/oj/}} in earlier Latin, were early on monophthongized.{{sfn|Clackson|2016|page=6}}

{{lang|la|ae}} became {{IPA|/ɛː/}} by{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} the 1st century {{smallcaps|a.d.}} at the latest. Although this sound was still distinct from all existing vowels, the neutralization of Latin vowel length eventually caused its merger with {{IPA|/ɛ/}} < short ''e'': e.g. ''caelum'' "sky" > French {{lang|fr|ciel}}, Spanish/Italian {{lang|es|cielo}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|céu}} {{IPA|/sɛw/}}, with the same vowel as in ''mele'' "honey" > French/Spanish {{lang|fr|miel}}, Italian {{lang|it|miele}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|mel}} {{IPA|/mɛl/}}. Some words show an early merger of ''ae'' with {{IPA|/eː/}}, as in ''praeda'' "booty" > *''prēda'' {{IPA|/preːda/}} > French {{lang|fr|proie}} (vs. expected **''priée''), Italian {{lang|it|preda}} (not **''prieda'') "prey"; or ''faenum'' "hay" > *''fēnum'' {{IPA|[feːnũ]}} > Spanish {{lang|es|heno}}, French {{lang|fr|foin}} (but Italian {{lang|it|fieno}} /fjɛno/).

{{lang|la|oe}} generally merged with {{IPA|/eː/}}: ''poenam'' "punishment" > Romance *{{IPA|/pena/}} > Spanish/Italian {{lang|es|pena}}, French {{lang|fr|peine}}; ''foedus'' "ugly" > Romance *{{IPA|/fedo/}} > Spanish {{lang|es|feo}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|feio}}. There are relatively few such outcomes, since {{lang|la|oe}} was rare in Classical Latin (most original instances had become Classical {{lang|la|ū}}, as in Old Latin {{lang|la|oinos}} "one" > Classical {{lang|la|ūnus}}<ref name="Palmer">Palmer (1954).</ref>) and so {{lang|la|oe}} was mostly limited to Greek loanwords, which were typically learned (high-register) terms.

''au'' merged with ''ō'' {{IPA|/oː/}} in the popular speech of Rome already by the 1st century {{smallcaps|b.c}}.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023|reason=Quite bold to claim that the entire phoneme /aw/ was lost to such a merger in the first century BC, in light of the modern Roman dialect reflecting no such thing (rather showing outcomes similar to those of Tuscan/Standard Italian).}} A number of authors remarked on this explicitly, e.g. [[Cicero]]'s taunt that the populist politician [[Publius Clodius Pulcher]] had changed his name from ''Claudius'' to ingratiate himself with the masses. This change never penetrated far from Rome, however, and the pronunciation /au/ was maintained for centuries in the vast majority of Latin-speaking areas, although it eventually developed into some variety of ''o'' in many languages. For example, Italian and French have {{IPA|/ɔ/}} as the usual reflex, but this post-dates diphthongization of {{IPA|/ɔ/}} and the French-specific palatalization {{IPA|/ka/}} > {{IPA|/tʃa/}} (hence ''causa'' > French {{lang|fr|chose}}, Italian {{lang|it|cosa}} {{IPA|/kɔza/}} not **''cuosa''). Spanish has {{IPA|/o/}}, but Portuguese spelling maintains {{angbr|ou}}, which has developed to {{IPA|/o/}} (and still remains as {{IPA|/ou/}} in some dialects, and {{IPA|/oi/}} in others).{{sfn|Boyd-Bowman|1980|pp=24–25}} Occitan, Dalmatian, Sardinian, and many other minority Romance languages still have {{IPA|/au/}} while in Romanian it underwent diaresis like in {{lang|la|aurum}} > {{lang|ro|aur}} (a-ur).{{Sfn|Sala|2012|p=145}} A few common words, however, show an early merger with ''ō'' {{IPA|/oː/}}, evidently reflecting a generalization of the popular Roman pronunciation:{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} e.g. French {{lang|fr|queue}}, Italian {{lang|it|coda}} {{IPA|/koda/}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|co(d)a}}, Romanian {{lang|ro|coadă}} (all meaning "tail") must all derive from ''cōda'' rather than Classical ''cauda''.<ref>''cauda'' would produce French **{{lang|fr|choue}}, Italian {{IPA|*/kɔda/}}, Occitan **{{lang|oc|cauda}}, Romanian **{{lang|ro|caudă}}.</ref> Similarly, Spanish {{lang|es|oreja}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|orelha}}, French {{lang|fr|oreille}}, Romanian {{lang|ro|ureche}}, and Sardinian {{lang|sc|olícra}}, ''orícla'' "ear" must derive from ''ōric(u)la'' rather than Classical ''auris'' (Occitan {{lang|oc|aurelha}} was probably influenced by the unrelated ''ausir'' < ''audīre'' "to hear"), and the form ''oricla'' is in fact reflected in the [[Appendix Probi]].

==== Further developments ====
===== Metaphony =====
{{Main|Metaphony (Romance languages)}}
An early process that operated in all Romance languages to varying degrees was [[metaphony]] (vowel mutation), conceptually similar to the [[Germanic umlaut|umlaut]] process so characteristic of the [[Germanic languages]]. Depending on the language, certain stressed vowels were raised (or sometimes diphthongized) either by a final /i/ or /u/ or by a directly following /j/. Metaphony is most extensive in the Italo-Romance languages, and applies to nearly all languages in Italy; however, it is absent from Tuscan, and hence from standard Italian. In many languages affected by metaphony, a distinction exists between final /u/ (from most cases of Latin {{lang|la|-um}}) and final /o/ (from Latin {{lang|la|-ō}}, {{lang|la|-ud}} and some cases of {{lang|la|-um}}, esp. masculine "mass" nouns), and only the former triggers metaphony.

Some examples:
* In [[Servigliano]] in the [[Marche]] of Italy, stressed {{IPA|/ɛ e ɔ o/}} are raised to {{IPA|/e i o u/}} before final /i/ or /u/:<ref name="kaze1991">{{Cite journal |last=Kaze |first=Jeffery W. |year=1991 |title=Metaphony and Two Models for the Description of Vowel Systems |journal=Phonology |volume=8 |pages=163–170 |doi=10.1017/s0952675700001329 |jstor=4420029 |s2cid=60966393 |number=1}}</ref> {{IPA|/ˈmetto/}} "I put" vs. {{IPA|/ˈmitti/}} "you put" (< *metti < *mettes < Latin {{lang|la|mittis}}); {{IPA|/moˈdɛsta/}} "modest (fem.)" vs. {{IPA|/moˈdestu/}} "modest (masc.)"; {{IPA|/ˈkwesto/}} "this (neut.)" (< Latin {{lang|la|eccum istud}}) vs. {{IPA|/ˈkwistu/}} "this (masc.)" (< Latin {{lang|la|eccum istum}}).
* Calvallo in [[Basilicata]], [[southern Italy]], is similar, but the low-mid vowels {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}} are diphthongized to {{IPA|/je wo/}} rather than raised:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Calabrese |first=Andrea |title=Metaphony |url=http://homepages.uconn.edu/~anc02008/Papers/METAPHONY.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053600/http://homepages.uconn.edu/~anc02008/Papers/METAPHONY.pdf |archive-date=2013-09-21 |access-date=2012-05-15}}</ref> {{IPA|/ˈmette/}} "he puts" vs. {{IPA|/ˈmitti/}} "you put", but {{IPA|/ˈpɛnʒo/}} "I think" vs. {{IPA|/ˈpjenʒi/}} "you think".
* Metaphony also occurs in most northern Italian dialects, but only by (usually lost) final *i; apparently, final *u was lowered to *o (usually lost) before metaphony could take effect.
* Some of the [[Astur-Leonese language]]s in northern Spain have the same distinction between final /o/ and /u/<ref>{{Cite web |title=ALVARO ARIAS CABAL – Publicaciones |url=http://personales.uniovi.es/web/ariasal/ |website=personales.uniovi.es |access-date=2015-12-30 |archive-date=2021-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429121158/https://personales.uniovi.es/web/ariasal/ |url-status=live }}</ref> as in the Central-Southern Italian languages,<ref name="penny1994">{{Cite journal |last=Penny |first=Ralph |year=1994 |title=Continuity and Innovation in Romance: Metaphony and Mass-Noun Reference in Spain and Italy |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=89 |pages=273–281 |doi=10.2307/3735232 |jstor=3735232 |number=2}}</ref> with /u/ triggering metaphony.<ref name="AAC">Álvaro Arias. "[https://minerva.usc.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10347/5730/pg_113-142_moenia11.pdf?sequence=1 La armonización vocálica en fonología funcional (de lo sintagmático en fonología a propósito de dos casos de metafonía hispánica)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119060648/https://minerva.usc.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10347/5730/pg_113-142_moenia11.pdf?sequence=1 |date=2018-01-19 }}", ''Moenia'' 11 (2006): 111–139.</ref> The plural of masculine nouns in these dialects ends in ''-os'', which does not trigger metaphony, unlike in the singular (vs. Italian plural {{lang|it|-i}}, which does trigger metaphony).
* Sardinian has allophonic raising of mid vowels {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}} to {{IPA|[e o]}} before final /i/ or /u/. This has been phonemicized in the [[Campidanese dialect]] as a result of the subsequent raising of final /e o/ to /i u/.
* Raising of {{IPA|/ɔ/}} to {{IPA|/o/}} occurs sporadically in Portuguese in the masculine singular, e.g. {{lang|pt|porco}} {{IPA|/ˈporku/}} "pig" vs. ''porcos'' {{IPA|/ˈpɔrkus/}} "pig". It is thought that Galician-Portuguese at one point had singular /u/ vs. plural /os/, exactly as in modern Astur-Leonese.<ref name="penny1994" />
* In all of the Western Romance languages, final /i/ (primarily occurring in the first-person singular of the [[preterite]]) raised mid-high {{IPA|/e o/}} to {{IPA|/i u/}}, e.g. Portuguese {{lang|pt|fiz}} "I did" (< *fidzi < *fedzi < Latin {{lang|la|fēcī}}) vs. ''fez'' "he did" (< *fedze < Latin {{lang|la|fēcit}}). Old Spanish similarly had {{lang|osp|fize}} "I did" vs. {{lang|osp|fezo}} "he did" (''-o'' by analogy with ''amó'' "he loved"), but subsequently generalized stressed /i/, producing modern ''hice'' "I did" vs. ''hizo'' "he did". The same thing happened prehistorically in Old French, yielding ''fis'' "I did", ''fist'' "he did" (< *feist < Latin {{lang|la|fēcit}}).

===== Diphthongization =====
A number of languages [[diphthongization|diphthongized]] some of the free vowels, especially the open-mid vowels {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}}:{{Sfn|Sala|2012|p=154}}
* Spanish consistently diphthongized all open-mid vowels {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/ > /je we/}} except for before certain palatal consonants (which raised the vowels to close-mid before diphthongization took place).
* Eastern Romance languages similarly diphthongized {{IPA|/ɛ/}} to {{IPA|/je/}} (the corresponding vowel {{IPA|/ɔ/}} did not develop from Proto-Romance).
* Italian diphthongized {{IPA|/ɛ/ > /jɛ/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/ > /wɔ/}} in open syllables (in the situations where vowels were lengthened in Proto-Romance), the most salient exception being /ˈbɛne/ {{lang|it|bene}} 'well', perhaps due to the high frequency of [[apocope|apocopated]] {{lang|it|ben}} (e.g. {{lang|it|ben difficile}} 'quite difficult', {{lang|it|ben fatto}} 'well made' etc.).
* French similarly diphthongized {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}} in open syllables (when lengthened), along with {{IPA|/a e o/}}: {{IPA|/aː ɛː eː ɔː oː/}} > {{IPA|/aɛ iɛ ei uɔ ou/}} > middle OF {{IPA|/e je ɔi we eu/}} > modern {{IPA|/e je wa œ ~ ø œ ~ ø/}}.
* French also diphthongized {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}} before palatalized consonants, especially /j/. Further development was as follows: {{IPA|/ɛj/ > /iej/ > /i/}}; {{IPA|/ɔj/}} > /uoj/ > early OF /uj/ > modern /ɥi/.
* Catalan diphthongized {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}} before /j/ from palatalized consonants, just like French, with similar results: {{IPA|/ɛj/ > /i/}}, {{IPA|/ɔj/ > /uj/}}.

These diphthongization had the effect of reducing or eliminating the distinctions between open-mid and close-mid vowels in many languages. In Spanish and Romanian, all open-mid vowels were diphthongized, and the distinction disappeared entirely.{{Sfn|Sala|2012|p=155}} Portuguese is the most conservative in this respect, keeping the seven-vowel system more or less unchanged (but with changes in particular circumstances, e.g. due to [[#Metaphony|metaphony]]). Other than before palatalized consonants, Catalan keeps {{IPA|/ɔ o/}} intact, but {{IPA|/ɛ e/}} split in a complex fashion into {{IPA|/ɛ e ə/}} and then coalesced again in the standard dialect ([[Eastern Catalan]]) in such a way that most original {{IPA|/ɛ e/}} have reversed their quality to become {{IPA|/e ɛ/}}.

In French and Italian, the distinction between open-mid and close-mid vowels occurred only in closed syllables. Standard Italian more or less maintains this. In French, /e/ and {{IPA|/ɛ/}} merged by the twelfth century or so, and the distinction between {{IPA|/ɔ/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} was eliminated without merging by the sound changes {{IPA|/u/ > /y/}}, {{IPA|/o/ > /u/}}. Generally this led to a situation where both {{IPA|[e,o]}} and {{IPA|[ɛ,ɔ]}} occur allophonically, with the close-mid vowels in [[open syllable]]s and the open-mid vowels in [[closed syllable]]s. In French, both {{IPA|[e/ɛ]}} and {{IPA|[o/ɔ]}} were partly rephonemicized: Both {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/ɛ/}} occur in open syllables as a result of {{IPA|/aj/ > /ɛ/}}, and both {{IPA|/o/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/}} occur in closed syllables as a result of {{IPA|/al/ > /au/ > /o/}}.

Old French also had numerous falling diphthongs resulting from diphthongization before palatal consonants or from a fronted /j/ originally following palatal consonants in Proto-Romance or later: e.g. {{Lang|fro|pācem}} /patsʲe/ "peace" > PWR */padzʲe/ (lenition) > OF {{Lang|fro|paiz}} /pajts/; *''punctum'' "point" > Gallo-Romance */ponʲto/ > */pojɲto/ (fronting) > OF {{Lang|fro|point}} /põjnt/. During the Old French period, preconsonantal /l/ [ɫ] vocalized to /w/, producing many new falling diphthongs: e.g. {{Lang|fro|dulcem}} "sweet" > PWR */doltsʲe/ > OF {{Lang|fro|dolz}} /duɫts/ > ''douz'' /duts/; ''fallet'' "fails, is deficient" > OF {{Lang|fro|falt}} > ''faut'' "is needed"; ''bellus'' "beautiful" > OF {{Lang|fro|bels}} {{IPA|[bɛɫs]}} > ''beaus'' {{IPA|[bɛaws]}}. By the end of the Middle French period, ''all'' falling diphthongs either monophthongized or switched to rising diphthongs: proto-OF {{IPA|/aj ɛj jɛj ej jej wɔj oj uj al ɛl el il ɔl ol ul/}} > early OF {{IPA|/aj ɛj i ej yj oj yj aw ɛaw ew i ɔw ow y/}} > modern spelling {{angbr|ai ei i oi ui oi ui au eau eu i ou ou u}} > mod. French {{IPA|/ɛ ɛ i wa ɥi wa ɥi o o ø i u u y/}}.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

===== Nasalization =====
In both French and Portuguese, [[nasal vowel]]s eventually developed from sequences of a vowel followed by a nasal consonant (/m/ or /n/). Originally, all vowels in both languages were nasalized before any nasal consonants, and nasal consonants not immediately followed by a vowel were eventually dropped. In French, nasal vowels before remaining nasal consonants were subsequently denasalized, but not before causing the vowels to lower somewhat, e.g. ''dōnat'' "he gives" > OF ''dune'' {{IPA|/dunə/}} > ''donne'' {{IPA|/dɔn/}}, ''fēminam'' > ''femme'' {{IPA|/fam/}}. Other vowels remained nasalized, and were dramatically lowered: ''fīnem'' "end" > ''fin'' {{IPA|/fɛ̃/}} (often pronounced {{IPA|[fæ̃]}}); ''linguam'' "tongue" > ''langue'' {{IPA|/lɑ̃ɡ/}}; ''ūnum'' "one" > ''un'' {{IPA|/œ̃/, /ɛ̃/}}.

In Portuguese, /n/ between vowels was dropped, and the resulting [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]] eliminated through vowel contraction of various sorts, often producing diphthongs: ''manum, *manōs'' > PWR *''manu, ˈmanos'' "hand(s)" > ''mão, mãos'' {{IPA|/mɐ̃w̃, mɐ̃w̃s/}}; ''canem, canēs'' "dog(s)" > PWR *''kane, ˈkanes'' > *''can, ˈcanes'' > ''cão, cães'' {{IPA|/kɐ̃w̃, kɐ̃j̃s/}}; ''ratiōnem, ratiōnēs'' "reason(s)" > PWR *''raˈdʲzʲone, raˈdʲzʲones'' > *''raˈdzon, raˈdzones'' > ''razão, razões'' {{IPA|/χaˈzɐ̃w̃, χaˈzõj̃s/}} (Brazil), {{IPA|/ʁaˈzɐ̃ũ, ʁɐˈzõj̃ʃ/}} (Portugal). Sometimes the nasalization was eliminated: ''lūna'' "moon" > Galician-Portuguese ''lũa'' > ''lua''; ''vēna'' "vein" > Galician-Portuguese ''vẽa'' > ''veia''. Nasal vowels that remained actually tend to be raised (rather than lowered, as in French): ''fīnem'' "end" > ''fim'' {{IPA|/fĩ/}}; ''centum'' "hundred" > PWR ''tʲsʲɛnto'' > ''cento'' {{IPA|/ˈsẽtu/}}; ''pontem'' "bridge" > PWR ''pɔnte'' > ''ponte'' {{IPA|/ˈpõtʃi/}} (Brazil), {{IPA|/ˈpõtɨ/}} (Portugal).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110550283/html |title=Manual of Romance Phonetics and Phonology |year=2021 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-055028-3 |editor-last=Gabriel |editor-first=Christoph |page=234 |doi=10.1515/9783110550283 |hdl=1983/44e3b3cd-164e-496b-a7a6-6b3a492e4c48 |s2cid=243922354 |editor-last2=Gess |editor-first2=Randall |editor-last3=Meisenburg |editor-first3=Trudel |access-date=2023-09-06 |archive-date=2023-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906182812/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110550283/html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Romanian shows evidence of past nasalization phenomena, the loss of palatal nasal [ɲ] in vie < Lat. vinia, and the rhotacism of intervocalic /n/ in words like mărunt < Lat. minutu for example. The effect of nasalization is observed in vowel closing to /i ɨ u/ before single /n/ and nasal+consonant clusters. Latin /nn/ and /m/ did not cause the same effect.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110550283/html |title=Manual of Romance Phonetics and Phonology |year=2021|publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-055028-3 |editor-last=Gabriel |editor-first=Christoph |page=235 |doi=10.1515/9783110550283 |hdl=1983/44e3b3cd-164e-496b-a7a6-6b3a492e4c48 |s2cid=243922354 |editor-last2=Gess |editor-first2=Randall |editor-last3=Meisenburg |editor-first3=Trudel |access-date=2023-09-06 |archive-date=2023-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906182812/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110550283/html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Front-rounded vowels ====
Characteristic of the [[Gallo-Romance languages|Gallo-Romance]] and [[Rhaeto-Romance languages]] are the [[front rounded vowel]]s {{IPA|/y ø œ/}}. All of these languages, with the exception of [[Catalan language|Catalan]], show an unconditional change /u/ > /y/, e.g. ''lūnam'' > French ''lune'' {{IPA|/lyn/}}, Occitan {{IPA|/ˈlyno/}}. Many of the languages in Switzerland and Italy show the further change /y/ > /i/. Also very common is some variation of the French development {{IPA|/ɔː oː/}} (lengthened in [[open syllable]]s) > {{IPA|/we ew/}} > {{IPA|/œ œ/}}, with mid back vowels diphthongizing in some circumstances and then re-monophthongizing into mid-front rounded vowels. (French has both {{IPA|/ø/}} and {{IPA|/œ/}}, with {{IPA|/ø/}} developing from {{IPA|/œ/}} in certain circumstances.)

=== Unstressed vowels ===
<!-- Setting the default font to Arial Unicode MS should make the IPA work out-of-the-box in IE-->
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:1em; text-align:center;"
|+ Evolution of unstressed vowels in early Italo-Western Romance
! rowspan=3| Latin
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Proto-<br />Romance
! rowspan="2" |Stressed|| rowspan=2| Non-final<br />unstressed || colspan="5" | Final-unstressed
|-
! Original !! Later<br />Italo-<br />Romance !! Later<br />Western-<br />Romance !! Gallo-<br />Romance !! Primitive<br />French
|-
! Acad.<sup>1</sup>
! [[Help:IPA|IPA]] !! colspan="7" | [[Help:IPA|IPA]]
|-
! ''a, ā''
| '''a'''
| *{{IPA|/a/}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|/a/}} || {{IPA|/a/}}
| colspan="3" |{{IPA|/a/}}|| {{IPA|/ə/}}
|-
! ''e, ae''
| '''ę'''
| *{{IPA|/ɛ/}} || {{IPA|/ɛ/}} || rowspan=3| {{IPA|/e/}} || rowspan="3" | {{IPA|/e/}}
| rowspan="3" |/e/|| rowspan="4" | {{IPA|/e/}} || rowspan=8| ∅; {{IPA|/e/}} (prop) || rowspan=8| ∅; {{IPA|/ə/}} (prop)
|-
! ''ē, oe''
| '''ẹ'''
| *{{IPA|/e/}} || rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/e/}}
|-
! ''i, y''
|'''į'''
| *{{IPA|/ɪ/}}
|-
! ''ī, ȳ''
| '''ị'''
| *{{IPA|/i/}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|/i/}} || {{IPA|/i/}}
|/i/
|-
! ''o''
| '''ǫ'''
| *{{IPA|/ɔ/}} || {{IPA|/ɔ/}} || rowspan=3| {{IPA|/o/}} || rowspan=2| {{IPA|/o/}} || colspan=2 rowspan=4| {{IPA|/o/}}
|-
! ''ō, (au)''
| '''ọ'''
| *{{IPA|/o/}} || rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/o/}}
|-
! ''u''
|'''ų'''
| *{{IPA|/ʊ/}}|| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/u/}}
|-
! ''ū''
| '''ụ'''
| *{{IPA|/u/}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|/u/}}
|-
! ''au''<br />''(most words)''
| '''au'''
| *{{IPA|/aw/}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|/aw/}} || colspan=5| N/A
|-
|colspan="10"| <sup>1</sup> Traditional academic transcription in Romance studies.
|}

There was more variability in the result of the unstressed vowels. Originally in Proto-Romance, the same nine vowels developed in unstressed as stressed syllables, and in Sardinian, they coalesced into the same five vowels in the same way.

In Italo-Western Romance, however, vowels in unstressed syllables were significantly different from stressed vowels, with yet a third outcome for final unstressed syllables. In non-final unstressed syllables, the seven-vowel system of stressed syllables developed, but then the low-mid vowels {{IPA|/ɛ ɔ/}} merged into the high-mid vowels {{IPA|/e o/}}. This system is still preserved, largely or completely, in all of the conservative Romance languages (e.g. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan).

In final unstressed syllables, results were somewhat complex. One of the more difficult issues is the development of final short ''-u'', which appears to have been raised to {{IPA|/u/}} rather than lowered to {{IPA|/o/}}, as happened in all other syllables. However, it is possible that in reality, final {{IPA|/u/}} comes from ''long'' *''-ū'' < ''-um'', where original final ''-m'' caused vowel lengthening as well as nasalization. Evidence of this comes from [[Rhaeto-Romance languages|Rhaeto-Romance]], in particular [[Sursilvan]], which preserves reflexes of both final ''-us'' and ''-um'', and where the latter, but not the former, triggers [[#Metaphony|metaphony]]. This suggests the development ''-us'' > {{IPA|/ʊs/}} > {{IPA|/os/}}, but ''-um'' > {{IPA|/ũː/}} > {{IPA|/u/}}.<ref>The outcome of ''-am -em -om'' would be the same regardless of whether lengthening occurred, and that ''-im'' was already rare in Classical Latin, and appears to have barely survived in Proto-Romance. The only likely survival is in "-teen" numerals such as ''trēdecim'' "thirteen" > Italian ''tredici''. This favors the vowel-lengthening hypothesis ''-im'' > {{IPA|/ĩː/}} > {{IPA|/i/}}; but notice unexpected ''decem'' > Italian {{lang|it|dieci}} (rather than expected ''*diece''). It is possible that ''dieci'' comes from *''decim'', which analogically replaced ''decem'' based on the ''-decim'' ending; but it is also possible that the final /i/ in ''dieci'' represents an irregular development of some other sort and that the process of analogy worked in the other direction.</ref>

The original five-vowel system in final unstressed syllables was preserved as-is in some of the more conservative central Italian languages, but in most languages there was further coalescence:
* In [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscan]] (including standard Italian), final /u/ merged into /o/.
* In the [[Western Romance languages]], final /i/ eventually merged into /e/ (although final /i/ triggered [[#Metaphony|metaphony]] before that, e.g. Spanish {{lang|es|hice}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|fiz}} "I did" < ''*fize'' < Latin {{lang|la|fēcī}}). Conservative languages like Spanish largely maintain that system, but drop final /e/ after certain single consonants, e.g. /r/, /l/, /n/, /d/, /z/ (< palatalized ''c''). The same situation happened in final /u/ that merged into /o/ in Spanish.
* In the [[Gallo-Romance languages]] (part of Western Romance), final /o/ and /e/ were dropped entirely unless that produced an impossible final cluster (e.g. /tr/), in which case a "prop vowel" /e/ was added. This left only two final vowels: /a/ and prop vowel /e/. Catalan preserves this system.
* Loss of final stressless vowels in [[Venetian language|Venetian]] shows a pattern intermediate between Central Italian and the [[Gallo-Italic languages|Gallo-Italic]] branch, and the environments for vowel deletion vary considerably depending on the dialect. In the table above, final /e/ is uniformly absent in ''mar'', absent in some dialects in ''part(e)'' /part(e)/ and ''set(e)'' /sɛt(e)/, but retained in ''mare'' (< Latin {{lang|la|mātrem}}) as a relic of the earlier cluster *dr.
* In primitive [[Old French]] (one of the [[Gallo-Romance languages]]), these two remaining vowels merged into {{IPA|/ə/}}.

Various later changes happened in individual languages, e.g.:
* In French, most final consonants were dropped, and then final {{IPA|/ə/}} was also dropped. The {{IPA|/ə/}} is still preserved in spelling as a final silent ''-e'', whose main purpose is to signal that the previous consonant is pronounced, e.g. {{lang|fr|port}} "port" {{IPA|/pɔʁ/}} vs. {{lang|fr|porte}} "door" {{IPA|/pɔʁt/}}. These changes also eliminated the difference between singular and plural in most words: {{lang|fr|ports}} "ports" (still {{IPA|/pɔʁ/}}), {{lang|fr|portes}} "doors" (still {{IPA|/pɔʁt/}}). Final consonants reappear in [[liaison (French)|liaison]] contexts (in close connection with a following vowel-initial word), e.g. {{lang|fr|nous}} {{IPA|[nu]}} "we" vs. {{lang|fr|nous avons}} {{IPA|[nu.za.ˈvɔ̃]}} "we have", {{lang|fr|il fait}} {{IPA|[il.fɛ]}} "he does" vs. {{lang|fr|fait-il ?}} {{IPA|[fɛ.til]}} "does he?".
* In Portuguese, final unstressed /o/ and /u/ were apparently preserved intact for a while, since final unstressed /u/, but not /o/ or /os/, triggered [[metaphony]] (see above). Final-syllable unstressed /o/ was raised in preliterary times to /u/, but always still written {{angbr|o}}. At some point (perhaps in late Galician-Portuguese), final-syllable unstressed /e/ was raised to /i/ (but still written {{angbr|e}}); this remains in [[Brazilian Portuguese]], but has developed to {{IPA|/ɨ/}} in northern and central [[European Portuguese]].
* In Catalan, final unstressed {{IPA|/as/}} > {{IPA|/es/}}. In many dialects, unstressed {{IPA|/o/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} merge into {{IPA|/u/}} as in Portuguese, and unstressed {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/e/}} merge into {{IPA|/ə/}}. However, some dialects preserve the original five-vowel system, most notably standard [[Valencian language|Valencian]].
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:1em;"
|+ Examples of evolution of final unstressed vowels:<br />From least- to most-changed languages
! rowspan="2"| English !! rowspan="2"| Latin !! Proto-Italo-<br />Western<sup>1</sup> !! Conservative<br />Central Italian<sup>1</sup> !! Italian !! Portuguese !! Spanish !! Catalan !! Old French !! Modern French
|-
! a, e, i, o, u !! a, e, i, o, u !! a, e, i, o !! colspan="2"| a, e/-, o !! a, -/e !! colspan="2"| e, -/e
|-
| one (fem.) || {{lang|la|ūnam}} || [ˈuna] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|una}} || {{lang|pt|uma}} || colspan="2"| una || colspan="2"| une
|-
| door || {{lang|la|portam}} || [ˈpɔrta] || colspan="3"| {{lang|it|porta}} || puerta || porta || colspan="2"| porte
|-
| seven || {{lang|la|septem}} || [ˈsɛtte] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|sette}} ||sete || siete || colspan="2"| set || sept
|-
| sea || {{lang|la|mare}} || [ˈmare] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|mare}} || colspan="3"| mar || colspan="2"| mer
|-
| peace || {{lang|la|pācem}} || [ˈpatʃe] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|pace}} || colspan="2"| paz || pau || paiz || paix
|-
| part || {{lang|la|partem}} || [ˈparte] || colspan="4"| {{lang|it|parte}} || colspan="3"| part
|-
| truth || {{lang|la|veritātem}} || [veriˈtate] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|verità}} || verdade || verdad || veritat || verité || vérité
|-
| mother || {{lang|la|mātrem}} || [ˈmatre] || {{lang|it|matre}} || {{lang|it|madre}} || mãe || madre || mare || meḍre || mère
|-
| twenty || {{lang|la|vīgintī}} || [veˈenti] || {{lang|it|vinti}} || {{lang|it|venti}} || vinte || veinte || colspan="2"| vint || vingt
|-
| four || {{lang|la|quattuor}} || [ˈkwattro] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|quattro}} || quatro ||cuatro || colspan="3"| quatre
|-
| eight || {{lang|la|octō}} || [ˈɔkto] || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|otto}} || oito || ocho || vuit || colspan="2"| huit
|-
| when || {{lang|la|quandō}} || [ˈkwando] || colspan="3"| {{lang|it|quando}} || cuando || quan || quant || quand
|-
| fourth || {{lang|la|quartum}} || [ˈkwartu] || {{lang|it|quartu}} || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|quarto}} || cuarto || colspan="3"| quart
|-
| one (masc.) || {{lang|la|ūnum}} || [ˈunu] || {{lang|it|unu}} || {{lang|it|uno}} || um || uno || colspan="3"| un
|-
| port || {{lang|la|portum}} || [ˈpɔrtu] || {{lang|it|portu}} || colspan="2"| {{lang|it|porto}} || puerto || colspan="3"| port
|}

=== Intertonic vowels ===
The so-called ''intertonic vowels'' are word-internal unstressed vowels, i.e. not in the initial, final, or ''tonic'' (i.e. stressed) syllable, hence intertonic. Intertonic vowels were the most subject to loss or modification. Already in Vulgar Latin intertonic vowels between a single consonant and a following /r/ or /l/ tended to drop: ''vétulum'' "old" > ''veclum'' > Dalmatian ''vieklo'', Sicilian ''vecchiu'', Portuguese ''velho''. But many languages ultimately dropped almost all intertonic vowels.

Generally, those languages south and east of the [[La Spezia–Rimini Line]] (Romanian and Central-Southern Italian) maintained intertonic vowels, while those to the north and west (Western Romance) dropped all except /a/. Standard Italian generally maintained intertonic vowels, but typically raised unstressed /e/ > /i/. Examples:
* ''septimā́nam'' "week" > Italian ''settimana'', Romanian ''săptămână'' vs. Spanish/Portuguese ''semana'', French ''semaine'', Occitan/Catalan ''setmana'', Piedmontese ''sman-a''
* ''quattuórdecim'' "fourteen" > Italian ''quattordici'', Venetian ''cuatòrdexe'', Lombard/Piedmontese ''quatòrdes'', vs. Spanish ''catorce'', Portuguese/French ''quatorze''
* ''metipsissimus''<ref>The Latin forms are attested; ''metipsissimus'' is the superlative of the formative -''metipse'', found for example in ''egometipse'' "myself in person"</ref> > ''medipsimus'' /medíssimos/ ~ /medéssimos/ "self"<ref>Ralph Penny, ''A History of the Spanish Language'', 2nd edn. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002), 144.</ref> > Italian ''medésimo'' vs. Venetian ''medemo'', Lombard ''medemm'', Old Spanish ''meísmo'', ''meesmo'' (> modern ''mismo''), Galician-Portuguese ''meesmo'' (> modern ''mesmo''), Old French ''meḍisme'' (> later ''meïsme'' > MF ''mesme'' > modern ''même'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Espinosa |first=Aurelio M. |year=1911 |title=Metipsimus in Spanish and French |journal=[[Modern Language Association#Activities|PMLA]] |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=356–378 |doi=10.2307/456649 |jstor=456649}}</ref>
* ''bonitā́tem'' "goodness" > Italian ''bonità'' ~ ''bontà'', Romanian ''bunătate'' but Spanish ''bondad'', Portuguese ''bondade'', French ''bonté''
* ''collocā́re'' "to position, arrange" > Italian ''collocare'' vs. Spanish ''colgar'' "to hang", Romanian ''culca'' "to lie down", French ''coucher'' "to lay sth on its side; put s.o. to bed"
* ''commūnicā́re'' "to take communion" > Romanian ''cumineca'' vs. Portuguese ''comungar'', Spanish ''comulgar'', Old French ''comungier''
* ''carricā́re'' "to load (onto a wagon, cart)" > Portuguese/Catalan ''carregar'' vs. Spanish/Occitan ''cargar'' "to load", French ''charger'', Italian ''caricare'', Lombard ''cargà/caregà'', Venetian ''carigar/cargar(e)'' "to load", Romanian ''încărca''
* ''fábricam'' "forge" > {{IPA|/*fawrɡa/}} > Spanish ''fragua'', Portuguese ''frágua'', Occitan/Catalan ''farga'', French ''forge''
* ''disjējūnā́re'' "to break a fast" > *''disjūnā́re'' > Old French ''disner'' "to have lunch" > French ''dîner'' "to dine" (but *''disjū́nat'' > Old French ''desjune'' "he has lunch" > French ''(il) déjeune'' "he has lunch")
* ''adjūtā́re'' "to help" > Italian ''aiutare'', Romanian ''ajuta'' but French ''aider'', Lombard ''aidà/aiuttà'' (Spanish ''ayudar'', Portuguese ''ajudar'' based on stressed forms, e.g. ''ayuda/ajuda'' "he helps"; cf. Old French ''aidier'' "to help" vs. ''aiue'' "he helps")
Portuguese is more conservative in maintaining some intertonic vowels other than /a/: e.g. *''offerḗscere'' "to offer" > Portuguese ''oferecer'' vs. Spanish ''ofrecer'', French ''offrir'' (< *''offerīre''). French, on the other hand, drops even intertonic /a/ after the stress: ''Stéphanum'' "Stephen" > Spanish ''Esteban'' but Old French ''Estievne'' > French ''Étienne''. Many cases of /a/ before the stress also ultimately dropped in French: ''sacraméntum'' "sacrament" > Old French ''sairement'' > French ''serment'' "oath".