Editing Gallo language (section)

=== Vowels ===
The vowel system of Gallo is close to French, but they diverged as they evolved, and Gallo has a number of phenomena not found in French, such as the pervasive use of [[schwa]] and [[diphthong]]s.

In Gallo, as in French, the [<nowiki/>[[Open front unrounded vowel|a]]] of [[Latin]] in [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed]] syllables has evolved into [<nowiki/>[[Close-mid front unrounded vowel|e]]] or [<nowiki/>[[Length (phonetics)|eː]]]. Thus, ''adsátis'' became ''assé'' [ase]. However, while French has combined [e] and [eː] into just [e], a distinction was preserved in Gallo. For example, when [a] was followed by [s], the [eː] became either an [e] or a diphthong, most often [ej]. The [e] became a schwa ([<nowiki/>[[Schwa|ə]]]) in most regions. This distinction between [e] and [eː] makes it possible to differentiate [[past participles]] by [[Grammatical gender|gender]] and number. While in standard French, ''chassé'', ''chassée,'' and ''chassés'' are all pronounced the same, most Gallo speakers make a [[Phoneme|phonemic]] distinction between the masculine ''chassé'' [ʃasə] and the feminine ''chassée'' or plural ''chassés'' [ʃase]. In this example, the pronunciation of ''é'' was changed when the silent feminine or plural endings were added to the word.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Chauveau |first=Jean-Paul |title=Evolutions phonétiques en gallo |date=1989 |publisher=Ed. du Centre national de la recherche scientifique |isbn=978-2-222-04281-5 |series=Sciences du langage |location=Paris}}</ref>

Latin verbs with infinitives ending in -''are'' followed the same evolutionary pattern as in French. ''Captiáre'' became ''chasser'' [ʃasə] in Gallo and ''chasser'' [ʃase] in French. This evolution of the [a] in stressed syllables varies from region to region. While in central [[Upper Brittany]], schwa has replaced [e]. In some outlying regions, it is replaced by [<nowiki/>[[Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]] or remains [e]. Some words do not obey the rule, such as ''pátre'' and ''mátre'', which have become ''pere'' [peʁ] and ''mere'' [meʁ] in practically all of Upper Brittany, while [pəʁ] and [məʁ] are only heard in the center-west. The [a] in open stressed syllables before [<nowiki/>[[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|l]]] doesn't follow the [e]/[eː] pattern either, and has evolved very differently in different regions. ''Sále'' has thus become ''sèl'', ''sél'', ''sé'' or ''seu''.<ref name=":3" /> Schwa is also used to make a [[Syllabic consonant|syllabic]] [l] and [ʁ], as in ''berton'' [bʁˌtɔ̃].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Angoujard |first=Jean-Pierre |date=2006 |title=Natures de schwa en gallo (ou " il y a schwa, schwa et schwa ") |url=http://jep2006.irisa.fr/openconf/author/final/final-64.pdf |journal=Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nante}}</ref>

Like all [[langues d'oïl]], Gallo underwent the [[vowel shift]] known as [[Bartsch's law]], according to which the Latin [a] in open stressed syllables, when preceded by a palatal consonant, became ''ie'', as in ''cápra'', which became ''chieuvr''. As in French, the sound [j] represented by the letter i disappeared around the Renaissance, giving ''chèvre'' and ''cheuv'', though this sound can still be observed in [[Côtes-d'Armor]]. In eastern Brittany, the disappearance of the sound was even more dramatic than in French, and some speakers say ''chen'' (dog), while the French word remains ''chien'' (from Latin ''cáne'').<ref name=":3" />

The Latin [e] in open stressed syllables has also evolved into ''ie'' in both Gallo and French, with ''hĕri'' becoming ''yere'', for example. In Gallo, the vowel following the y differs from region to region. In most of Upper Brittany, it's a schwa, and elsewhere it's a [ɛ] or an [e] (the geographical distribution is the same as for [e]/[eː]). The Latin [o] in open stressed syllables became a ''ue'', then [[Monophthongization|monophthonged]] in both French and Gallo around the 12th century, becoming [<nowiki/>[[Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]] in French, [ə] in Gallo. ''Cór'' thus became ''qheur''. The evolution of the Latin [e] in closed stressed syllables is much more diverse, and the original diphthong ''éi'' has been replaced by a large number of phonemes varying from word to word and region to region. The many pronunciations of ''mai'', from the Latin ''mé'', illustrate this diversity: [maj], [ma], [me], [mɛ], etc. The pronunciation of Latin [o]/[u] in closed stressed syllables is more authentic in Gallo than in other langues d’oïl. ''Gùla'', for example, is pronounced [gul] in Gallo, but [gœl] in French. Some terms, however, are influenced by neighboring langues d'oïl, and ''astour'' [astuʁ] ("now", from Latin ''hóra'') is becoming [astœʁ] in eastern Upper Brittany. In the south of [[Loire-Atlantique]], thanks to contact with [[Poitevin dialect|Poitevin]], [ɔ] is common, and guernol [gɛʁnɔl] and parto [paʁtɔ] are heard instead of guernouille [gɛʁnuj] and partout [paʁtu].<ref name=":3" />

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan=2| !! colspan=2|[[Front vowel|Front]] !! rowspan=2|[[Central vowel|Central]] !! rowspan=2|[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! unrounded || rounded
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}} || {{IPA link|y}} ||  || {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| {{IPA link|e}} {{IPA link|eː}} || {{IPA link|ø}} ||  || {{IPA link|o}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|  ||  || {{IPA link|ə}} || 
|-
! [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| {{IPA link|ɛ}} {{IPA link|ɛː}} {{IPA link|ɛ̃}}  || {{IPA link|œ}} {{IPA link|œ̃}} ||  || {{IPA link|ɔ}} {{IPA link|ɔ̃}} 
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA link|a}} ||  ||  || {{IPA link|ɑ}} {{IPA link|ɑ̃}}
|}