2 



added, chiefly on the imperfect basis laid by Diez. But by 

 far the greater number of practical grammars content them- 

 selves with simply giving more or less complete alphabetical 

 lists of stem-changing verbs, which are not likely to be used 

 except for reference. 



Does historical grammar furnish any clew for a successful 

 practical classification of the stem-changing Spanish verbs con- 

 sidered here ? If so, this certainly would be the most welcome 

 aid. In examining this question it will be well to leave out of 

 account for the present all «>- verbs that modify their e or o in 

 analogy with decir, for they offer no difficulty whatever, and 

 to consider those verbs that dipthtongize their stem-vowel 

 when tonic. 



Diez, briefly stated, lays down the following rule for the 

 diphthongization. ~ Latin short tonic e, o (less often ^, 'ii) change, 

 to ie, ue, especially before Z, m, n, r or s followed by another 

 consonant. This principle is now so far modified as to limit 

 the primitive change to Latin short e, o, and to assign the lack 

 of change, or its reversion, to certain phonetic or analogical 

 conditions.^ 



Now, even if this principle could be used in its simple form 

 and without complicating considerations, in testing all verbs in 

 question, it would be useless to non-classical students, and of 

 limited avail even to classical. But, as a matter of fact, the 

 quantity of Latin tonic 6, o is far from being a safe criterion for 

 determining their treatment in modern Castilian verbs. Though it 

 is true that these vowels when short are generally diphthongized 

 in early Spanish, a mass of words have come into the language 

 after that law ceased to be operative, many dialectic influences 

 and borrowings have occiu*red, and changes b}' analogy taken 

 place, and thus the subject, far from being at the command of 

 the ordinary classical student, is in many instances yet a puzzle 

 to the experienced philologist. 



To be sure, most of the modifiable Spanish e and o vowels 



2 Diez Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, pp. 527, 127, 135. 



3 Cf. Baist ha Grober's Grundrisa der Romanischen Philologie, I. 

 p. 74. 



t 



