What a shame the "king" word is
<crai> from South Slavic <kralj> :)
More seriously, Slavic car' (<c> =
[ts]) is from Germanic kaisa:r-, which reflects Caesar's name with the original
Classical pronunciation. The initial was palataliser after the change of
*ai to *e^ (a front vowel), so the common Slavic form was
<ce^sarI>. Similar forms still exist (usually mening 'emperor'
generally), but as the title of Russian, Serbian or Bulgarian rulers the word
underwent phonetic erosion (like innumerable other words of polite address, cf.
English Mr./Mrs. or king < kyning): ce^sarI > cIsarI > csar' >
car'.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 2:51 AM
Subject: [tied] Terra
If in a romance language
country is tzarã,
dirt
is tzãrânã,
sea shore is tzãrm,
piece of land is tzarinã,
farmer is
tzãran,
wouldn't be normal the king to be tzar?
Any ideas why
not?
Best regards,
Paul Alesu
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