On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 18:12:22 +0000, m_iacomi
<
m_iacomi@...> wrote:
> Would the Basque variant "txiki" explain phonetically "chico"
Not phonetically.
>or one would expect a Castillian "chiqui"?! If yes, could an
>eventual "chiqui" > "chico"?!
The suffix -i in Basque is a non-productive adjectival
suffix. I don't know when it stopped being productive.
Perhaps 2000 years ago it was still alive, and a Basque
speaker adopting Latin would have replaced adjectival -i
with Latin masc. -u/-o, fem. -a (txiki > txiko/txika). So
it's a possibile non-phonetic development (morphological
subsitutution) in a substrate/bilingualism situation.
That of course does not explain the Catalan, Provençal or
Italian words.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...