Re: Chico ([tied] Re: Romance Pequeno, Pequeño [...])

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 18:22:59 +0000, m_iacomi
<m_iacomi@...> wrote:

>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" wrote:
>
>>> In principle yes, but the Portuguese equivalent "chico" `small`;
>>> `flat (sea)`; `ancient coin of 40 centavos` is usually given from
>>> Latin "ciccum" (or even Ital. "cico" `thing of little value` --
>>> the It. actual word is "cica" and is rather rare, regional and
>>> archaic - its origin is anyway related to the same Latin "ciccum"
>>> `worthless object`, `trifle`). Semantics, phonetics and geography
>>> (Catalan "xic") point towards this etymon.
>
>> The shift ci- > chi - it's a feature of Aragonese, I think.
>
> Lat. acernia > Port. cherne (It. cernia), or Lat. cimi:ce- > Port.
>chinche would support that even in Portuguese one can have this
>kind of evolution, though these words could be very well loaned
>as in other cases (Port. chichisbéu < It. cicisbeo, Port. chinar <
>Sp. chinar, Port. chitão < Sp. chiton, etc.). I am not familiar
>with all details about Iberic dialects, maybe Miguel would be so
>kind to give a more pertinent opinion (I would pick a Castillian
>intermediate, but the same Latin etymon).

c(e/i) > ch(e/i) is not Aragonese, as far as I know (what's
Aragonese is ge/i, j- > che/i, e.g. germanus > chermá(n),
chirmán or juvenis > chove(n)), as well as -ll- > -ch-
(valle > bache).

The result c > ch is only regularly seen in Mozarabic
(giving a few words in Spanish, such as chinche, chícharo).

As to chico, xic, there's of course also Basque txiki ~
txipi "small" to consider. Coromines also mentions Occitan
chic, Sardinian ticcu and Italian zica, cicco, cica. He
concludes that we're dealing with an expressive formation,
only partially or indirectly related to Latin ciccum.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...