Gallo-Iberian languages

The Gallo-Iberian languages are one of the groups in which some authors and Ethnologue classify the Romance languages, although other authors disagree that they constitute a valid phylogenetic unit. The Gallo-Iberian languages share a good number of isoglosses, vowels, and features that are unique to the Romance languages. The group is made up of the Ibero-Romance, Occitan-Romance, Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Italic and Retorromance languages. According to other authors, it also includes Mozarabic, which would be a pre-Galoiberian variety. This set of languages could be considered the least conservative of Latin in terms of phonology. The group has traditionally been called the Western Romance languages, however some authors also consider Insular Romance as part of the Western Romance languages due to some shared isoglosses.

The Gallo-Iberian languages have strong substrates of Celtic, Germanic and, to a lesser extent, Arabic languages both in phonology and lexicon. This influence is more notable in the Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Italic, Occitan-Romance and Retorromance languages. For example, the Germanic substratum caused them to develop non-existent vowels in other Romance languages (/y/, /ø/, /œ/, /æ/, /ə/).

Isoglosses

The Gallo-Iberian languages have the following isoglosses:

• Palatalization of the group -cl. The palatalization was given mainly in /t≤/, /./, /j/, although it was also given in other ways. In Spanish it was subsequently given aspiration after palatalization. A trait shared with insular romance. Examples are:

Latin	Spanish	Portuguese	Sardo	Catalan	French	Romanche	Lombard	Véneto	Italian (Eastern)
Clavicla	clavi(j)a	chave(lh)a	cabi(gi)a	clavi(ll)a	chevi(ll)e	tganvea(gl)a	cavi(gg)ia	caé(ci)a	cavicchia
Veclus	vie(j)o	ve(lh)o	bé(ci)u	ve(ll)	vie(il)	ve(gl)	ve(gg)	ve(ci)o	Go.cchior
Cochlearium	cu(ch)ara	co(lh)er	co(ci)àre	cu(ll)era	cui(ll)ère	cu(gl)ar	cu(gg)iar	qua(ci)aro	cucchiaio
Pariclus	pair(j)o	pair(lh)o	parí(ci)u	pair(ll)	pair(il)	pair(gl)	pair(gg)	pair(ci)o	paircchior

In Romansh the cluster (gl) is pronounced /ʎ/. In Lombard the groups (cc) and (gg) are pronounced /tʃ/ and /ʒ/ respectively. In Sardinian, Lombard and Venetian the cluster (ci) is pronounced /tʃ/.

• Sonorization or loss of occlusive intervocálica sordas /p, k, t/ probably by a Celtic substrate as most of these languages tend to sound or lose these indoeuropean fonemes. This means that many words that in Latin originally went with (/k/, /t/, /p/) between vowels were changed to (/g/, /d/, /b/, /v/). A trait shared with insular romance. Examples of sonorization or loss of intervocálic deaf occlusives in some languages are:

Latin	Spanish	Portuguese	Catalan	French	Romanche	Lombard	Véneto	Sardo (insular)	Italian (Eastern)
Apertus	a(b)ier	a(b)erto	o(b)ert	ou(v)ert	a(v)ert	da(v)ert	a(v)erto	a(bb)ertu	aper
Apicula/Apis	a(b)eja	a(b)elha	a(b)ella	a(b)eille	a(v)ieul	a(v)a	a(v)a	à(b)e	ape
Ficara/Ficus	h(g)uera	fi(g)ueira	(g)uera	fi(g)uier	fi(gh)er	fi(g)àr	fi(g)aro	(g)uera	ficor
Cicada	ci(g)arra	ci(g)arra	ci(g)ala	ci(g)ale	ci(g)ala	Yes(g)ala	Yes(g)ała	chí(g)ula	cicWing
Rotare	ro(d)ar	ro(d)ar	ro(d)ar	rô(d)er	ro(d)ar	rœu(d)à	ro(d)ar	arò(d)are	Rutare
Potere	po(d)er	po(d)er	po(d)er	pou(v)oir	po(d)air	po(d)è	po(d)er	po(d)ere	potere

• Formation of the plural with (-s) derived from the mark of plural accusatory of Latin. A trait shared with insular romance. Examples of plural formation are:

• Another distinguishing characteristic is the feminine participation that in the galo-ibéric languages and the insular romance ends in -da or is lost in some languages like the French, instead in the Eastern romance the female participle ends in -ta because it has not been sounded or lost. Some examples:

• They lose the groaning consonants of Latin. (e.g. VACCA ▪ cow /baka/ (s, ca), cow /vak// (pt), cow /vaka/ (lmo, vec). Instead in Italian vacca /vak:a/. In French and romanche palatalization was given vache (fr) vatga (rm). A trait shared with insular romance.
• They contain many Latin words finished with (s, z) without necessarily being part of the plural. (e.g. Six (s, pt) Yeah. (ca, rm) ses (lmo, vec) six /sis/ (fr) month (s, ca), mês (pt), mois (fr) mais (rm), Me (lmo) plus (fr) püss (lmo). In Italian sei, mese, più. A trait shared with insular romance.
• There is elimination of occlusive consonants (e.g.: CADERE ▪ fall (en), fall (pt), cap (ca), choir (fr) raw (rm), caièr (see, lmo). In Italian Cadere. A trait shared with insular romance.
• There is elimination of intertonic vowels (between the tonic syllable and the first or the last syllable).
• They also have phonetic innovations absent in Eastern Romance languages and insular romance.

Mozarabic

The classification of Mozarabic within the Romance languages is somewhat controversial. Due to its geographical location, Mozarabic is classified as part of the Western Romance languages and therefore would be included within the Gallo-Iberian group. However, one of the defining characteristics of Western Romance languages, such as the voicing of intervocalic voiceless plosives, did not seem to occur in these speeches. Voicing had only occurred before initial -p. The lack of voicing seems to be a feature of the first testimonies, but the truth is that in later testimonies there seems to have been voicing in some languages such as "Al Tagr Al-A'lá". On the other hand, Mozarabic shares with all neighboring Romance languages the palatalization of the intervocalic group -cl, the presence of the plural -s, the elimination of intertonic vowels, the vowel evolution, pronouns and possessive adjectives before words, which They are features of the Western Romance languages, with which Mozarabic would constitute an archaic branch of Western Romance, especially of the Gallo-Iberian group.

Classification

They are usually classified as follows:

• Galoibérico
  • Iberorromance languages
    • Western
      • Asturleon
      • Spanish or Spanish
      • Galaicoportugués
        • Gallego
        • Portuguese
    • Aragonés
  • Occitance languages
    • Catalan
    • Occitan
  • Renewed languages
    • Friulano
    • Romanche
    • Ladino-dolomite
  • Galloromance languages
    • Francoprovenzal
    • Languages of oïl
      • Angevin-mayen
      • Berrichon
      • Burgundy
      • Franco-comtés
      • French or French
      • Galo
      • Lorenés
      • Norman
      • Picardo
      • Valon
      • Poitevin-Santongés
  • Galician languages
    • Main Galoitálico
      • Ligur
      • Lombard
      • Piemontés
      • Emiliano-romañol
    • Véneto
    • Istriano
  • Mozárabe †