Re: -l > -w

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Marc Verhaegen

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 4:12 AM

Subject: [cybalist] Re: Odp: -l > -w

Mark says:

 

You mention French chaud. Dutch kald>koud (Engl.cold) changed in parallel with French cald->caud- (later >chaud). Both words have a common origin, I believe, but opposite meaning.

 

They are "false friends". Chaud is from Latin calidus 'hot, warm', unrelated to Germanic *kalda-.

 

Cold forms a word-family with chill and cool. They all seem to be related to Latin gelu: 'frost, cold' and gelidus 'icy, cold' (PIE *g > Gmc *k by Grimm's Law); hence jelly, gelid, gelatin and other Romance loans in English.

 

A further question is: why did Portugese & esp. French have the strongest stress, stronger than in other Romance languages? French could have got its strong stress from the Franconian invaders, but what about Portugese? Visigoths??

 

Why not? Or some Iberian substrate (Lusitanian?). Of course strong stress may be a spontaneous development within Portuguese. There doesn't have to be an external stimulus for everything.

 

Piotr