Re: [tied] The word for horse

----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 6:37 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] The word for horse



> The problem is that there is no intervocalic "l" in "cal".

Not in modern Romanian. But there must have been a time when the word was inflected, whether in Latin or (for the sake of the argument) in Dacian, and certainly in early Romanian. Rhotacism was earlier than the loss of inflectional endings, compare <mãr> or <pãr>.

> How would you analyse the word "celeris" for instance? This is a derivative from what?

According to Pokorny, PIE *kel- 'force to move'.

> I wonder if French lost too the intervocalic "b".

It normally became /v/ in French, as in <écriver> (= Rom. <scrie>) or <fève> (< faba), but it was lost or vocalised in most clusters that had resulted from vowel syncope, as in <dette> (< *depta < debita). Lat. tabula yielded OFr. taule via regular development, but <table> was then reintroduced from Mediaeval Latin.

> I gues the word was simplly "cal" and this is way there is no rothacism.

Impossible. Inflection was obligatory once upon a time (see above). Even reflexes of Latin consonantal stems are regularly rhotacised in Romanian (<soare>, <sare>); then, what about derivatives like <cãlãtor>?

Piotr