On Thu, 13 Feb 2003 01:31:07 +0100, Piotr Gasiorowski
<
piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Miguel Carrasquer" <mcv@...>
>To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 12:54 AM
>Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Balkan Serpents (was: alb. gji (breast))
>
>
>> Unstressed /e/ gave /i/ here, probbaly at the stage *vetiellu > *vitiellu by assimilation.
>
>Isn't non-Classical /i:/ (e.g. via contamination from <vi:ta>, as suggested by Richard) more likely?
It's a possibility, but I don't see much evidence for such a
contamination. The form is vedell in Catalan, vedel in Occitan, veau
in French.
Italian has vitello, but that's an almost standard development of
unstressed /e/ in initial syllable in Italian, especially but by no
means exclusively, when a palatalized consonant or a front vowel
follows (signore, migliore, finestra, nipote, etc. etc.). The same
happens, always, in Southern Romanian (Aromanian nipot, picurar,
siptãmânã, etc.). Judging by vitzel, it also sporadically happens in
Daco-Romanian.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...