Vowel Harmony as evidence of historical change

Abstract

As a process of assimilation which is common in human languages, pretonicvowel harmony, such as happens in menina ~ minina, coruja ~ curuja,has been found in European Portuguese since its infancy, developingitself with the language over time half way through the eighteenth century,declining since then until its disappearance in European Portuguese in thenineteenth century, continuing, however, in Brazilian Portuguese. It canbe seen as a watershed ever since: Brazilian Portuguese preserving thepretonic harmony on the one hand, and European Portuguese neglectingit, on the other hand; to dialects of the same language.