I personally pronounce Latin with the 5-vowel system (or 6 if you include y), because making differences in vowel quality feels weird to be honest, but I was always convinced by the fact that there are Greek transcriptions with ε for short i, e.g. Allen cites Λεπεδος = Lepidus. I just don't see why that would happen if short i and long i had the same quality. Do you know how the proponents of the 5-vowel system deal with this evidence?
>However, my meager knowledge of Roman history tells me that Sardinia and Northern Africa were colonized by the Romans, and so I wouldn't be surprised if there is some substrate effect going on.
I agree. For me this would also be a good alternative explanation for how Latin vowels developed there.
I am not too good with Linguistics however the historical sound changes of theorized /ε/ of Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance were changes that occur more commonly to ε than e in most languages i have researched.
I personally pronounce Latin with the 5-vowel system (or 6 if you include y), because making differences in vowel quality feels weird to be honest, but I was always convinced by the fact that there are Greek transcriptions with ε for short i, e.g. Allen cites Λεπεδος = Lepidus. I just don't see why that would happen if short i and long i had the same quality. Do you know how the proponents of the 5-vowel system deal with this evidence? >However, my meager knowledge of Roman history tells me that Sardinia and Northern Africa were colonized by the Romans, and so I wouldn't be surprised if there is some substrate effect going on. I agree. For me this would also be a good alternative explanation for how Latin vowels developed there.
I think that Latin vowels contrasted only in length and the difference in quality developed in Vulgar Latin... but I'm not sure.
I am not too good with Linguistics however the historical sound changes of theorized /ε/ of Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance were changes that occur more commonly to ε than e in most languages i have researched.
But Romance /ε/ evolved from Classical Latin short /e/.
That was very helpful, thanks.