Metafonia latina e metafonia romanza

It is proposed that prototypical Romance metaphony (alteration of stressed mid vowels triggered by a following high segment) arose subsequent to the differentiation of Romance vowels systems (Common, Balcanic, Sardinian), although Latin itself, at a substandard level, had a very specific case of metaphony (BĒSTIA > BĪSTIA, ŌSTIUM > ŪSTIUM). The difference between metaphony in Western Romance and in the rest of Romània is highlighted; and within the latter, between Sardinian, Romanian and Southern Italian metaphony. The resulting landscape gives an exemplary illustration of the state of ordered variety or controlled disorder of late imperial Latin.