Vowel deletion before sibilant-stop clusters in Latin: issues of syllabification, lexicon and diachrony

Abstract

Syncope of a short vowel before a cluster sT(R) (T: stop; R: l or r) is attested in Latin and Sabellic: Latin fēstra (beside fenestra), sēstertius, iuxtā, Oscan vezkeí, minstreis, Umbrian etuřstamu, mersto. This phenomenon raises important questions both for the historical phonology of the Italic languages and for the typological study of sT(R)-clusters. In Latin and Sabellic, syncope normally took place only in open syllables. Three competing strategies are possible in order to explain this paradox. (i) It has been argued that the cluster sT(R) was an onset, which would imply that the vowel standing before the cluster sT(R) was in an open syllable at the time of the syncope. (ii) It has been proposed that the sequence sT behaves as a single consonant. (iii) It could be assumed that the syncope did not take place in a closed syllable except if the closing consonant was s (or its allophone z). Furthermore, a careful study of the relevant material shows that in some Latin words a vowel standing before sT(R) may have been deleted by a phonological process distinct from the syncope stricto sensu (haplology, noundinum-rule).