unstable sounds that were lost early. The symbol < means “comes from, came from,” and
means “becomes, became.”)
Two general but highly significant alterations occurred in Vulgar Latin. The Classical
Latin distinction in vowel quantity ceded to a system of vowel quality: long vowels
closed, high vowels lowered, long and short A fell together, and the Classical Latin
diphthongs simplified (except for AU, which was not reduced until the end of the Gallo-
Roman period). The second important change was the replacement of the Classical Latin
musical, or pitch, accent, by a stress, or tonic, accent. The syllable that received the tonic
accent in Latin was retained in Old French, whereas other, weakly stressed syllables
tended to be effaced. To that stress system, Germanic speech later contributed its own
strong expiratory stress.
Vowels developed according to the degree of stress with which they were uttered.
When the strongest degree of stress, called tonic stress, fell on one syllable of a word,
other syllables were uttered more weakly. Vowels were altered in measure as they were
found in tonic, countertonic (secondarily stressed), or atonic (unstressed) syllables. In
most cases, the way in which they developed also depended upon their consonantal
environment. Simply put, a group of two consonants (except where the second is an r or
an 1 ) closes a syllable, “checking” or “blocking” a vowel preceding, but just one
consonant leaves the syllable open and the vowel is said to be “free.”
Diphthongs were created when certain tonic free vowels “broke”: ę>ie (PED
EM]>pied); (SOR OR]> suor); (ME>mei); (FLOR EM]>flour); later,
ei> oi, uo>ue and ou>eu. By contrast, in tonic checked position and in syllables bearing
secondary stress, the same vowels did not diphthongize.
Because final and intertonic syllables were unstressed, their vowels were especially
vulnerable to effacement. Although final a remained in the form of / / (as in Eng. about:
PORTA>porte), most other word-final vowels were effaced (PORT[U]>port). Most
vowels between tonic and countertonic syllables were eliminated (TAB[U]LA>table,
DEB[I]TA>dette); here again, a could be more resistant: before an accented syllable
a>/ / (ORNAMENTU>ornement), which could stand in hiatus with a following stressed
vowel (ARMA[T]URA>armëure).
A distinguishing feature of French was the alteration of free a in a stressed syllable. In
that environment, a was raised to , which later opened to ę in certain situations
(MATR[EM]>mere, PORTAR[E]>porter).
Palatalization, the process by which sounds made with the tongue are altered as the
middle or the front of the tongue is lifted toward the hard palate, began in colloquial
Latin. The velar consonants k (spelled c) and g are a striking example. The palatalization
of k and g in certain positions in Gallo-Roman resulted in the creation of four new
consonants: the fricatives /ts/ (as in Eng. bits) and /dz/ (as in Eng. beds), and the
affricates (as in Eng. church) and (as in Eng. judge): in CENT(EM), /k/(C)>/ts/; in
CANTA(T), in GAMB(A), and so on. Similarly, in the groups kl and gl, the
loss of the first element after a vowel produced another new consonant, the palatal liquid
/λ/ (as in Ital. figlio). Palatalization also occurred when e or i before a, o, u became /j/ (as
in Eng. yes) after a syllable bearing tonic stress; /j/ then palatalized the preceding
consonant, as in the new VINEA>vigne (as in Mod. Fr.).
Palatalization affected vowels as well as consonants. It occurred independently in the
raising of/u/ (as in Fr. ou) to /y/ (as in Fr. tu), but other instances were conditioned by
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