Re: [tied] Re: *gwistis

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

From: alexmoeller@...

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 6:31 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: *gwistis

> [Moeller] aham.. latin ege went somehow -eje in romanian."a InTelege "= to understand = lat. intelligere will be never spoked InTeleje, but this is hard to understand:-)

I don't find it harder to understand than Italian dito 'finger' vs. intelligente, or maestro vs. agile. The lenition of -g- was common already in Late Latin, and I suppose the variants /digitum/ : /di[j]itum/ : /di:tum/ can all be regarded as Proto-Romance, the first one presumably more learned than the rest, other things being equal. Sporadic colloquial lenition will typically target frequently used words whose meaning is deducible from the context even if the realisation is somewhat careless.

 

Piotr