1. It should be remembered that the Latin words, at the time of their adoption, had undergone various phonetic changes in the clerical pronunciation: cf. § [15]. A form remezi, for instance, presupposes a pronunciation of remĕdium as remęðiu(m).
3. CONSONANTS.
54. The Latin consonants which we have to consider are: b, c (= k), d, f, g, h, j (= y), l, m, n, p, qu (= kw), r, s, t, v (= w), x (= ks). To these we must add the Vulgar Latin w coming from u̯, and y coming from e̯, i̯: see § [40], (2). Furthermore, in words borrowed from Germanic dialects we find b, ð, h, k, þ, w, which call for special notice; and, in words borrowed from Greek, ch, k, ph, th, z.
The Latin d, f, j, l, p, t call for no remark at present. Latin h, in popular speech, became silent very early (hŏc ＞ ŏc, hŏmo ＞ ŏmo), and, although an attempt was made to restore it in polite speech, it left no trace in the Romance languages: cf. Rom., XI, 399. Double consonants were pronounced distinctly longer than single ones: annus, ĭlle, ŏssum, tĕrra.
55. Latin b, c, g, m, n, qu, r, s, v, w, x, y show the following developments in popular Latin speech:—
B between vowels became, through failure to close the lips tightly, β (bilabial v), from the 1st to the 3d century of our era: habēre ＞ aβẹre. The same change took place, to a certain extent, when the b was not intervocalic, but we have few, if any, traces of it in Provençal. Between vowels, even in learned words, the clerical pronunciation was probably β or v until the 7th century. Cf. V.
C before a front vowel (e, i), as early as the 3d century, doubtless had, in nearly all the Empire, a front or palatal articulation; that is, it was formed as close as possible to the following vowel[36]: cĕntum ＞ c´ĕntu, dūcĕre ＞ dūc´ĕre. The next step was the introduction of an audible glide, a brief y, between the c´ and the vowel[37]: c´yęntu, dục´yere. By the 5th century this c´y had developed into a kind of ty, the c´ having been drawn still further forward: t´yęntu dụt´yere. Through a modification of the y-glide, the group then became, in the 6th or 7th century, tš or ts: tšęntu tsęntu. See H. Schuchardt, Voc., I, 151, and Ltblt., XIV, 360; P. E. Guarnerio, in Supplementi all’ Archivio glottologico italiano, IV (1897), pp. 21-51 (cf. Rom., XXX, 617); G. Paris, in the Journal des savants, 1900, 359, in the Annuaire de l’École pratique des Hautes-Études, 1893, 7, in the Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions, 1893, 81, and in Rom., XXXIII, 322; W. Meyer-Lübke, Einf., pp. 123-126; F. G. Mohl, Zs., XXVI, 595; P. Marchot, Phon., pp. 51-53; W. Meyer-Lübke, in Bausteine zur romanischen Philologie, 313. Cf. G and X.[38]
G between vowels, before the accent, disappeared in some words in at least a part of the Empire: le(g)ālis, li(g)āmen, re(g)ālis, (realis is attested for the 8th century); ĕgo, generally used as a proclitic, everywhere lost its g; on the other hand, g was kept in castigāre, fatigāre, ligāre, negāre, pagānus. G before a front vowel (e, i), by the 1st or 2d century, was pronounced g´ (cf. C): gĕntem ＞ g´ĕnte, fragĭlis ＞ frag´ĭlis. As early as the 4th century this g´, through failure to form a close articulation, opened into y[39]: yęnte, fráyilis. Before an accented e or i an intervocalic y disappeared, in the greater part of the Empire, being fused with the vowel: magĭster ＞ mayįster ＞ maẹster, ✱pagēnsis ＞ payẹsis ＞ paẹsis, regīna ＞ reyịna ＞ reịna.[38]
M and n, when final, were weak and indistinct from the earliest times, except in monosyllables; by the 3d or 4th century they had probably disappeared altogether from the end of polysyllables: damnu, nọme; but jam, non.