ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the development of the Latin /mV̆r/ and /nV̆r/ sequences in Spanish and Portuguese, and concludes that three factors were crucial to their development: the longer duration of /m/ and presence of /mbr/ sequences in Latin, which favored /mr/ > /mbr/ epenthesis, versus the effects of grammaticalization on Latin /nV̆r/, which impeded epenthesis of /d/ but favored other outcomes for /nV̆r/ like /nr/, /rr/, or /rn/. It breaks new ground by linking Latin /nV̆r/ to a grammaticalization process, which affords an explanation of why /nV̆r/ underwent metathesis (> /rn/) or assimilation (> /rr/) rather than epenthesis (> /ndr/).
