Some neglected evidence on Vulgar Latin o from io and uo: Consentius, GLK V 401, 13-16 (27, 17-20 N.)

Abstract

Both i and u played an important role in the phonetic evolution of many Latin words. The complexity of that evolution has to do with the ambiguous phonetic nature of those phonemes, which from the time of ancient grammarians are recognised to have the capacity of acting as either a vowel or a consonant . This double capacity is particularly relevant in contexts where either of them is followed by another vowel forming a hiatus, for the possibility arises of either preserving the hiatus (this is the regular solution of standard Latin: ui.ti.um ) or grouping the two vowels in the same syllable (this is the most common solution in substandard Latin ui.tjum). However, evidence from both classical metre and inscriptions shows that there are two further possibilities of pronouncing those sequences, namely uit.jum (as it is witnessed in Vergil´s [Aen. 2.16] ab.ie.te ) and ui.t(i)um (with loss of i, u). It is mainly to the latter (for convenience we will refer to it as ´glide suppression´ or, alternatively, ´glide deletion´) that we will pay attention to in this paper, inasmuch as it is implied in a passage from the fifth century grammarian Consentius which, in our view, has not received the attention it deserves.