Syllabification, Simple Vowels & Diphtongs, Length and Accentuation

The second lesson will teach you the basics of Interlingua phonetics. This lesson includes length of vowels and del diphthongs, accentuation and syllabification. All examples come straight from the IED.

Syllabification

1. In general, Interlingua follows the basic Latin rule: there are as many sylllables as there are vowels, or "one vowel, one syllable".
   pa-tre, so-ror, a-mor, etc…
2. The silent "H" intervocalic counts as a consonant and cause a separations between two vowels, which otherwise could form a diphthong.
   tra-her, com-pre-hen-der etc…
   Please note the complete table of diphthongs at the bottom of the page.
3. The "U" following a "Q" is counted as part of the "Q" and is ignored in the vowel counts or in poetic scansion. The same happens also to the "U+vowel" following a "G", or an "S".
   quan-do, an-gue, sui-ne, etc…
4. Double or multiple consonants are split between the two syllables. Note that "X" and "Z" were always counted as double.
5. ac-com-mo-dar, a-dres-sar, con-struer, ex-hu-mar, etc…
6. Two vowels forming a diphthong belong to the same syllable.
   Eu-ro-pa, ai-ra, a-lien, etc…
7. Syllabification in words of Greek origin remained as in the original greek:
   po-e-ma, the-a-tro, etc…

Vowels and Diphthongs

There are six basic vowels in Romanesco/Castrense, five native and one of Greek origin. They are A, E, I, O, U and Y. There are also two other vowels of foreign origin: the Æ and the Œ, which are still in the process of being re-assimilated.
All vowels could be either long or shorts, but while today, lenght has become irrelevant in most cases, it is still important to acknowledge it, since often, it still dictates the location of the tonic accent of modern words.

Length and Accentuation

There are two basic rules affecting tonic accentuation in classic Latin, which were incorporated in interlingua:

1. Bisyllabic words are accentuate on the penultimate syllable, without consideration for the length of the vowels receiving the accent:
   1. Long: bélle, ílle, cóxa, álbum, etc…
   2. Short: réte, zóna, gélo etc…
   
   Note that Latin was stricter about accentuating the penultimate syllable than interlingua: album (á-), which by Interlingua standard should be albúm.
2. Polysyllabic words are accentuate on the semi-penultimate syllable if the penultimate vowel is short. This rule applies to greek words as well. Otherwise, regularly on the penultimate
   1. penultimate vowel was long in Latin, as i:
      burséro, ferroviári, mucositáte, etc…
   2. penultimate vowel was (randomly) short in Latin, as in:
      dígito, plúrime, lúgubre, etc…
   3. penultimate vowel was short in Latin as identified in GI, paragraph 10:
      frágile, órdine, témpore, etc…

Modern Diphthongs e Hyatuses

Latin had only seven diphthongs: AE, OE, AU, EU, EI, OI, and UI. Most of them had disappeared in popular Latin, by the first century a.C, as Cicero complained, leaving behind only long "E's" or long ""O's". Others survived until modern times since they followed the rhythm and the rules of the languages which evolved from late Latin.
In the middle ages, during the undocumented phase of very late Latin or earliest Proto-Romanic, vowels were divided in soft and hard. The "I", the "U", the "Y" vocalic and the French "EU" were always considered soft vowels and the "A", the "E" the "O" and the French "OEU" were always considered hard vowels. From this distinction derive the four following rules:

1. Two hard vowels always form a hyatus (or two syllable)
2. Two soft vowels always form a diphthong (or one syllable)
3. A soft vowel and a hard vowel always form a hyatus (or two syllables) if the soft vowel is tonic
4. A soft vowel and a hard vowel always form an diphthong (or un syllable) if either the hard vowel or neither of the two is tonic

From these simple rules one can arrive at this quite extensive table:

It seems to me that Interlinguaincludes only one triphthong (miáular), but there could be more. The rules of accentuation apply also to triphthongs.

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