Acceso usuarios
César Gutiérrez
The evolution of Latin sequences [min] to Spanish [mbɾ] has traditionally been accounted for through a syncope of the unstressed vowel and rhotacism of the alveolar nasal. This relative chronology is based on written records from the Middle Ages, in which spellings such as "mn", "mr" and "mbr" are found.
However, from a phonetic perspective the sound change [mn] [mɾ] is problematic.
Since consonant lenition is cross-linguistically more prone to happen in weak positions (i. e., coda and intervocalic) than in strong positions (i. e., onset), the rhotacism of the [n] in the [mn] sequences, which is in post-consonantal syllable-onset position, is not expected. Rather, progressive assimilation, regressive assimilation or lenition of [m] are processes more likely to be undergone by [mn] sequences. This article proposes that the rhotacism occurred prior to the syncope ([min] [mi/eɾ]), which accounts for the flapping of the nasal in intervocalic position. There is evidence of the same sound change in other Romance languages where the unstressed vowel did not syncope. From the philological point of view, the lack of "mi/er" spellings in the medieval documentation is explained as a consequence of the logographic scriptae that were used in most Iberian kingdoms until the 12th century.
