Variation and linguistic change of Galician-Portuguese (13th and 14th centuries): The clitic pronouns Me/Mi, Lle/Lhi and other forms in <-i> final

Abstract

This paper analyses the variation -i / -e at the end of the words inside the evolution frame of the Galician-Portuguese linguistic system from 1250 to 1350. It focalises on one differential feature between Portuguese and Galician that didn’t get enough attention in the past: the preservation in Portuguese of the final [i] in latin atonic words as an [i] in a series of Portuguese words, while they end with an [e] in Galician. The article also focuses on the clitic pronouns me (P1), te– che (P2), lle(s) (P3 and P6) e xe (P3-P6ref) found on the Galician texts, which in Portuguese are respectively mi, ti, lhi(s) and xi. There is a special attention put on the variation between me and mi with its pertinent allomorphs {m} e {mi}. Likewhise, the article shows the importance of the desinence of P1 in the strong perfect tense of some verbs and of P2 in the perfect tense of all the verbs: in the Galician texts, the verbal forms end in -e (dixe, amaste – amasche), while Portuguese verbs tend to end in -i (dixi, amasti). Based on a broad selection of different kind of texts, prose and verse, literary and documentary, this article will show an analysis of the diatopic distribution, the diachronic evolution and the chronology of these variation, which lead into the generalitation of the forms ending in -e.