IV. Nasal Dissimilation and Transposition in Portuguese

Dissimilation and transposition of l and r in Spanish and Portuguese are phenomena to which attention need scarcely be called: lilio > lirio, crepare > quebrar. In Portuguese the nasal often displays the same sort of instability. Campana and ∗ ventano, which remained unchanged in Spanish, developed as follows in Portuguese: campana > campãa > campã , 1 and ventana > ventãa > ventã . 2 At this stage dissimilation took place giving the forms campá 3 and ventá. By analogy with other nouns ending in a, the accent then shifted to the penult.