428 



IXTEUVOCALIC 



AND 



IN OLD PORTUGUESE. 



do Lorvao, " as also the " Livro dos Foraes Velhos. ..." The 

 Portuguese language appeared in writing for the first time in the 

 twelfth century in the form of a poem attributed to our second 

 king. 



Attention may now be directed to two very important laws 

 of Portuguese philology', dating from the twelfth century, which 

 laws are a phenomenon almost unknown in other Romance 

 languages, and which denote another step towards our linguistic 

 separation and towards the most complete definition of our 

 nationality. 



One of them is that the letter N between vowels dhappears 

 and nasalizes the previous vowel. This law is clearly established 

 by documents written in old Portuguese.* 



Later on, the nasalization disappears, but the original ortho- 

 graphy is maintained for a long time and only gets obliterated 

 in modern Portuguese. It is to be observed that in Spanish — I 

 call the Castilian language Spanish — the said phenomenon is not 

 to be found, and the language follows the general law of the 

 Romance languages b}' preserving the letter N between vowels. 



Examj^lcs 



Lat. tenit 

 Lat. fine 

 Lat. bonum 

 Lat. lunam 

 Lat. arenam 

 Lat. cenam 

 Lat. minutum 



>>Port. tene>*tee>tcm Span, tiene 



>»Port. fie>>fi>fim Span, fine 



>Port. bonu>b6o = bom Span, bueno 



>Port. luna>lua>lua Span, luna 



>Port. area>areia Span, arena 



>Port. cena>cea>cea>ceia Span, cena 



>»l'ort. minuto>miudo>»miudo Span, menudo 



It might be stated that there are many words in Portuguese 

 which have not undergone this modification, but it is to be 

 remembered that those, which are found in such cases, have 

 appeared in the language used in modern times and are of learned 

 origin. 



This goes to prove, therefore, that the Portuguese language 

 followed the destinies of our nationality, creating thereby different 

 laws from those which govern the evolution of Spanish phonetics, 

 exactly in the same period in which the principles of our 

 nationality were being assured. The exact date at which this 

 transformation started operating is about the twelfth century, 

 coinciding, therefore, with the constitution of the Portuguese 

 kingdom. Seven centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, 

 the Latin language had been transformed into a number of 

 languages, but Portuguese marked its strong originahty, avoiding. 



We call " old Portuguese " the Portuguese language in use before tlie 

 15tli century. 



