Changes in the vowel system and spatial representations from Latin to Romance languages: hypothesis of a spatial referent buccal space Cover Image

Evoluţia sistemul vocalic şi a reprezentărilor spaţiale a limbii latine în limbile romanice: ipoteza unui spaţiu bucal referent spaţial
Changes in the vowel system and spatial representations from Latin to Romance languages: hypothesis of a spatial referent buccal space

Author(s): Sophie Saffi
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Editura Universităţii Vasile Goldiş
Keywords: vowels; space conception; Latin; Italian; French; voyelles; concept d’espace; latin; italien; français; vocale; conceptul de spaţiu; limba latină; italiană; franceză.

Summary/Abstract: I comment on the disappearance of the Latin vowel quantity which is accompanied by a recapture of the length for the prosody in the Romance languages, and in Italian, for the diphthongs, geminates and affricates management. I establish a parallel between, on one hand, spatial distribution and aperture distribution of vowels, on the other hand, conceptions of the person and its space. I present an hypothesis about the role of language in establishing spatial referentials, in which spatial geometry of the oral cavity serves as the fundamental referential for kinesthetic memory, and the phonological system of the mother language is a model of the operating of body’s set of internal models and physical laws.

  • Issue Year: VII/2011
  • Issue No: 04
  • Page Range: 24-36
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: French