Re: Gemination in Celtic

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Anders R. Joergensen"
<ollga_loudec@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud"
> <fournet.arnaud@> wrote:
> >
> > > ========
> > > No
> > > Northern French je mak- "I eat"
> > > impossible from masticare.
> > > Arnaud
> >
> > Well, Norman French (and Picard?, I'm not sure) doesn't have
> > palatalization of k+a, so if that is the origin of mak-, then no
> > problem. *mastika:re > *masker > mak- (or similarly).
> >
> > =======
> > Not all French dictionnaries agree on that.
> > Arnaud
>

There's a _maquer_ 'to break hemp(?)', next to OFr.
_macher_ 'squeeze, press'. Are these the words you are thinking of?
The form without palatalization must be from Norman or Picard.

macher is attested without -s- early on, so it must be
from "*makka:re". A cognate is found in Breton mac'hañ 'oppresser',
which may have been borrowed early from Gallo-Romance. There are
apparently also cognates in other Romance languages.

Anders