# Milk from lactem

Words inherited from Latin reached their present shape through regular sound changes. The game holds twenty-four of them: apply them, in any order that reaches the result, and get forty Romanian words out of their Latin etymons.

*Lactem* gave *lapte*, *noctem* gave *noapte*, *factum* gave *fapt*. All three went through the same change: the cluster *ct* became *pt*. Each word went through others as well, and none of them depends on what the word means. A sound change depends on the neighbouring sounds, and it happens wherever the same conditions are met.

Order matters. In *caballum*, simplify the double consonant before the *l* between vowels turns into *r*, and you end up with *car*. Apply the other rule first and leave the *ll* intact, and you get *cal*, the Romanian word for horse.

## The twenty-four rules

- **-m, -s → –** — the ending drops. Word-final *m* and *s* stop being pronounced in late Latin. (lupum → lup)
- **-u → –** — final *-u* drops. Lost after a single consonant, kept after clusters such as *-dr-* (codru) and after a vowel (bou). (lupum → lup)
- **-a → -ă** — final *-a* becomes *-ă*. Unstressed final *a* reduces to the central vowel *ă*. (casam → casă)
- **ct → pt** — *ct* becomes *pt*. The consonant made at the back of the mouth is replaced by one made at the lips. The same *lactem* gave *latte* in Italian, *leche* in Spanish and *lait* in French. (lactem → lapte)
- **gn → mn** — *gn* becomes *mn*. Again a replacement by a consonant made at the lips, this time a nasal one. (pugnum → pumn)
- **x → ps** — *x* becomes *ps*. The letter *x* stood for the sounds *cs*, and the *c* becomes *p* just as in the cluster *ct*. (coxam → coapsă)
- **qu → p** — *qu* becomes *p*. The cluster, made with rounded lips, reduces to *p*: *aqua*, *equa*, *quattuor*. (aquam → apă)
- **CC → C** — double consonants simplify. Latin distinguished *anus* from *annus* by the length of the consonant. Romanian gave that distinction up. (vallem → vale)
- **VlV → VrV** — intervocalic *l* becomes *r*. Only a single *l*. A double *ll* is not affected, which is why the order of these two rules matters. (salem → sare)
- **VbV, VvV → VV** — *b* and *v* drop between vowels. The consonant weakens between vowels until nothing of it is left. (ovum → ou)
- **VV → V** — two identical vowels merge. Once a consonant drops, the two vowels left side by side merge into one. (caballum → cal)
- **o → oa** — stressed *o* becomes *oa*. Only when *a*, *ă* or *e* follows in the next syllable. Hence *poartă* but *porți*. (portam → poartă)
- **e → ie** — stressed *e* becomes *ie*. The stressed short vowel diphthongises: an *i* appears in front of it. (pellem → piele)
- **e → ia** — stressed *e* becomes *ia*. The same diphthongisation; with *a* or *ă* in the next syllable, the second element is *a*. (petram → piatră)
- **a → â / _m, n** — *a* becomes *â* before a nasal. Before a nasal consonant, *a* closes toward the central vowel *â*. (campum → câmp)
- **e → i / _m, n** — *e* becomes *i* before a nasal. The vowel *e* closes to *i*: *dentem* gives *dinte*, *bene* gives *bine*. (lentem → linte)
- **o → u / _m, n** — *o* becomes *u* before a nasal. The same closing before a nasal: *pontem* gives *punte*. (pontem → punte)
- **ĭ → e** — short *i* becomes *e*. Latin distinguished a long *i* from a short one. The difference was there in speech even though writing did not mark it, and short *i* became *e*. The result could then undergo further changes: *lingua* gave *limbă*. (siccum → sec)
- **ae → e** — *ae* becomes *e*. The classical diphthong reduces to a plain vowel in later spoken Latin. (caelum → cer)
- **h → –** — *h* disappears. It had not been pronounced for centuries by the time Romanian formed; spelling kept it out of habit. (herbam → iarbă)
- **CVC → CC** — the unstressed vowel falls. The vowel of an unstressed syllable, before *l*, *r* or *n*, is lost outright: *oculum* becomes *oclu*. (merulam → mierlă)
- **cl → chi, gl → ghi** — *cl* and *gl* soften. The *l* becomes an *i*, and the consonant before it is palatalised. (oculum → ochi)
- **li → i** — *li* before a vowel becomes *i*. The *l* disappears and the *i* stays on as part of the diphthong. (filium → fiu)
- **ti → ț** — *ti* before a vowel becomes *ț*. The *t* is palatalised before the *i* and yields the affricate *ț*. (pretium → preț)

## All forty derivations

The Latin form is the accusative, because that is what the Romanian word descends from. The chain shows the shortest run of rules that leads from etymon to modern word.

- lupum → lupu → lup — Lat. *lupum*, “wolf”.
- casam → casa → casă — Lat. *casam*, “hut”. In Classical Latin, *casa* was the hut, not the stone dwelling; that was *domus*, which was lost from Romanian.
- focum → focu → foc — Lat. *focum*, “hearth”. The hearth stood in the middle of the house, and *ignis*, the Latin word for flame, disappeared from Romanian.
- lactem → lacte → lapte — Lat. *lactem*, “milk”.
- factum → factu → faptu → fapt — Lat. *factum*, “deed”.
- coctum → coctu → coptu → copt — Lat. *coctum*, “cooked, baked”.
- pugnum → pugnu → pumnu → pumn — Lat. *pugnum*, “fist”.
- aquam → aqua → aquă → apă — Lat. *aquam*, “water”.
- vallem → valle → vale — Lat. *vallem*, “valley”.
- annum → annu → anu → an — Lat. *annum*, “year”.
- salem → sale → sare — Lat. *salem*, “salt”.
- gulam → gula → gulă → gură — Lat. *gulam*, “gullet, appetite”. In Romanian the name spread from gullet to mouth, and *os, oris*, the classical word for mouth, disappeared.
- ovum → ovu → ou — Lat. *ovum*, “egg”.
- caballum → caballu → cabalu → caalu → calu → cal — Lat. *caballum*, “pack horse, nag”. *Caballus* was the poor working horse. The masculine *equus* left no inherited descendant in the Romance languages, though the feminine *equa* gave Romanian *iapă*, mare.
- portam → porta → portă → poartă — Lat. *portam*, “gate”.
- florem → flore → floare — Lat. *florem*, “flower”.
- solem → sole → sore → soare — Lat. *solem*, “sun”.
- noctem → nocte → nopte → noapte — Lat. *noctem*, “night”.
- coxam → coxa → coxă → copsă → coapsă — Lat. *coxam*, “hip”.
- pellem → pelle → pele → piele — Lat. *pellem*, “skin”.
- ferrum → ferru → feru → fieru → fier — Lat. *ferrum*, “iron”.
- petram → petra → petră → piatră — Lat. *petram*, “rock”.
- campum → campu → câmpu → câmp — Lat. *campum*, “field”.
- lanam → lana → lană → lână — Lat. *lanam*, “wool”.
- lentem → lente → linte — Lat. *lentem*, “lentil”.
- pontem → ponte → punte — Lat. *pontem*, “bridge”. *Pod* came later from Slavic, and *punte* narrowed to the footbridge.
- montem → monte → munte — Lat. *montem*, “mountain”.
- siccum → siccu → sicu → secu → sec — Lat. *siccum*, “dry”.
- nigrum → nigru → negru — Lat. *nigrum*, “black”.
- lignum → lignu → limnu → lemnu → lemn — Lat. *lignum*, “wood”.
- caelum → caelu → celu → ceru → cer — Lat. *caelum*, “sky”.
- cognatum → cognatu → comnatu → cumnatu → cumnat — Lat. *cognatum*, “blood relative”. Romanian narrowed the sense from blood relative to relative by marriage.
- herbam → herba → herbă → hiarbă → iarbă — Lat. *herbam*, “grass”.
- filium → filiu → fiiu → fiu — Lat. *filium*, “son”.
- pretium → pretiu → prețu → preț — Lat. *pretium*, “price”.
- merulam → merula → merulă → mierulă → mierlă — Lat. *merulam*, “blackbird”.
- trifolium → trifoliu → trifoiu → trifoi — Lat. *trifolium*, “clover”.
- scandulam → scandula → scandulă → scandură → scândură — Lat. *scandulam*, “shingle”.
- directum → directu → direptu → dreptu → drept — Lat. *directum*, “straight, direct”.
- oculum → oculu → oclu → ochiu → ochi — Lat. *oculum*, “eye”.

## How this was checked

None of the forty derivations is written by hand. Every intermediate form on the page is what the rule named beside it produces, run through the same engine you use while playing. The step count given as the minimum is the shortest run found by a breadth-first search over the rules, up to eight of them.

The game applies its rules to written forms, while the historical changes affected pronunciation. Latin spelling marks neither stress nor vowel length, though both shape how a vowel develops: the rule “short *i* becomes *e*” applies here to any *i*, because spelling does not show which one was short. Likewise the game accepts any order that reaches the target, while the real chronology of the changes is fixed and settled in the handbooks. The chains here reconstruct the result for the reader without dating the stages.

Inherited words generally descend from the accusative rather than the dictionary nominative, which is why we start from *lupum* and not *lupus*. The exceptions are known: *om* continues the nominative *homo*, and for neuters the two forms coincided anyway.

To check whether the rules hold beyond the words chosen here, I gave them an independent list: the 660 Romanian words that Wiktionary records as inherited directly from Latin, whose etymon is given without intermediate links and in a form the engine can start from. For 152 of them the rules produce exactly the Romanian form, among them *fugă*, *turmă*, *bine*, *coastă*, *lână*, *lingură*, *piedică* and *mire*. The rest need changes these twenty-four rules do not cover, or start from a nominative too far from the form the word descends from — *lac* for *lapte*, *nox* for *noapte*.

## Sources

- Wiktionary, English edition — the Latin etymons, inheritance chains and glosses. Content under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
- Marius Sala, *De la latină la română*, Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, 1998 — the reference description of the sound changes used here.
- Alexandru Rosetti, *Istoria limbii române de la origini până la începutul secolului al XVII-lea*, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1986 — the detailed treatment of consonant clusters and of vowels before nasals.

https://mariuscomper.uk/lapte-din-lactem/en/