[tied] Re: Romanian senin

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex_lycos" wrote:

>>>> I have a horrible feeling that r > n is subject to a lot of
>>>> irregularity, but it would be nice to hear if there are any
>>>> workable rules
>>>
>>> The "doublette" coroana-cununa (for all kind of crowns,
>>> incl. made of natural leafs) occurs to my mind
>>
>> This feature is due to normal assimilation by next /n/ and is
>> common in Daco-Romanian. The process is like -VrVn- > -VnVn-
>
> Coroana is a word where I will say this is a later loan

That was already suggested when speaking about a doublet. These
appear when one has one inherited word and one late loan.

> If one assume "cununã" is from Latin "corona" with the rule
> -VrVn > VnVn, is not enough.

That's your problem. Both assimilation and dissimilation are
encountered in Daco-Romanian. That is -VrVn- > -VnVn- for
assimilation and -VnVn- > -VrVn- for dissimilation. Assimilation
is early attested in "Psaltirea Scheiana" with "aninã" instead
of "arinã" (< "arena", `sand`), or with "fãninã" instead of
"fãrinã" (< "fari:na(m)" `meal`; modern word is "fãinã"). Also
dissimilation appears in early Daco-Romanian texts: "amerinTa",
"gerunki", etc.
BTW, in Aromanian one has "curunã" (without assimilation).

> Both "o" of the Latin word became changed in "u" which
> shouldn't be explained to easy.

First /o/ > /u/ being unstressed, the second /o/ stressed > /u/
because preceding an /n/.

Marius Iacomi