[ã]→[au]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 4/5
Nasalized open front unrounded vowel to Diphthong au
The nasalized low vowel [ã] diphthongizes to [aw] or [au] through the development of a palatal or labial glide. This occurs historically in Romance languages as nasal consonants are lost and the nasalized vowel nucleus develops an off-glide to maintain phonological contrast. The shift is particularly prominent in Portuguese, where three distinct Latin endings (-anum, -anem, -onem) merged into the single nasal diphthong [ɐ̃w̃] by the 14th-15th centuries.
Phonetic Effects
Diphthongization, Glide Development, Nasalization Preservation
Language Examples
[ɐ̃]→[ɐ̃w̃]
Related Transformations
More Nasalization Shifts
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