LINGUIST List 11.742

Fri Mar 31 2000

Disc: Underlying Schwa?

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <>


  1. F. Dubert, Disc: Underlying Schwa?

Message 1: Disc: Underlying Schwa?

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 11:41:04 +0200
From: F. Dubert <>
Subject: Disc: Underlying Schwa?

The two most common patterns of conjugation of the verb "o�r/ouvir" ('hear')
in Galician are:

pattern 1 (["] stressed; [O] back mid-open vowel)

[Oj]- root 1 in P1 Sing Indicative Present, and in all the Subjunctive
["Oj-o] I hear (indicative)
["Oj-a] I hear (subjunctive)
[Oj-"a-mos] we hear (subjunctive)

[O]- root 2 elsewhere
["O-e-s] you hear (Indicative Present)
[O-"i-mos] we hear (Indicative Present)

pattern 2 (["] stressed; [B] aproximant bilabial)

[owB]- root in all the paradigm
["owB-o] I hear (indicative)
["owB-a] I hear (subjunctive)
[owB-"a-mos] we hear (subjunctive)
["owB-e-s] you hear (Indicative Present)
[owB-"i-mos] we hear (Indicative Present)

Both of the roots ([O] and [owB]) come from AUDIRE (latin).

There exist in Galician forms taken over from Latin that contain a root
_audi_ (_audici�n, inaudito, audible, auditorio_...).

Should I derive sinchronically the roots [O]- or [owB]- from /audi/?, or
Does the present Galician grammar contain rules that derive [O] or [owB]
from an UR /audi/?
In my view, it is irrelevant if these rules have to be lexical or
postlexical rules, or if these rules have to be in this or that level... My
question is: Does Galician's grammar need these kind of rules?

The roots [O] and [owB] were created by direct evolution from latin; with
different forms along the history, they were always present in the everybody
language, and [O] and [owB] are the present result of this evolution.
Words like _audici�n, inaudito, audible, auditorio_ came into Galician later
(they are loan words, or created with loan words and loan sufixes).
During centuries, these loan words weren't used by the majority of the
population (but all the people used during these centuries forms like [O]
and [owB]).
Does the introduction of the loan words signify a change in the grammar of
the verb "o�r/ouvir" 'hear', i.e., a change in the UR of "o�r/ouvir"?
Has the UR of [O] or the UR of [owB] changed since words like _auditivo_
have entered into the "common language"?

If I were a child who learned to use [O]- at home, and, later, in the
school, I learned _auditorio_... has the acquisition of _auditorio_ changed
my grammar?

Or is the relation between audi- and o-/ouv- a suppletive one?

Francisco Dubert Garc�a
Departamento de Filolox�a Galega
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela