Elementos de cronología fonética del vascuence

Abstract

Owing to the difficulty in using terms from the lexical heritage in order to establish the datos of the various phonetic changes in Basque, the author resorts to the testimony of Latin-Romance loans, for which a chronology has already been firmy established (cf. Straka 1953, 1956). The relative order thas obtained is: 1) mb > m; 2) mp > mb; 3) -n- >; 4) nd > n; 5) nt > nd; alf ofwhich took place between the middle of the ard century and the second half of the 4th century A. D. The valcing of initial unvoiced plosives occurs between the 1st and 3rd centuries, whilst the date of -l- > -l- is much more imprecise, though it must be before the 11th century, when -l- > -l- occurs without having its output affected by the former rule.