STUDIES ON EXTERNAL VOCALIC SANDHI PROCESSES – EMPHASIS ON ELISION – IN OLD PORTUGUESE

The main objectives of this study are the mapping and analysis of external vocalic sandhi processes in Portuguese religious songs (Cantigas de Santa Maria) by Alfonso X, the Wise (13th century). The sandhi processes that occur through the juxtaposition of words constitute elision, diphthongisation, crasis (MASSINI-CAGLIARI, 2005, for Old Portuguese). Through this work and an unexplored corpus (especially regarding linguistic themes - SNOW, 1987; MASSINI-CAGLIARI, 2005), we intend to contribute to the achievement of deeper knowledge of the history of Portuguese prosody in the period when it was recognised as an “independent” language from Latin.