Saint (was: Historical implications...)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Sun, 15 Jun 2003 17:21:26 +0200, alex <alxmoeller@...> wrote:
>
> >But the shortly form of santa ist stã: Santa Maria = Stãmarie and

the

> >short form of sântus is Sân (Sân Nicolaul)
> >Both of them does not reflect Latin sanctus since expected is
> >*sãmptu/sampta
>
> Expected is sântu ~ sân, cf. Port. santo ~ são, Spa. santo ~ san,

Cat.

> sant, Fr. saint, Ita. santo. The Vulgar Latin form was *santus,

not

> sanctus.

How does Old French seint, saint (> English saint) derive from
*santus? I would have expected Old French *sant. The only other
relevant -nct- cluster I can think of is in iunctus 'joined', from
which we have Old French joint (> English joint), where as I would
expect *iuntus to have yielded *jont. The problem with this example
is that Old French joint could be contaminated by the present joign-
or the infinitive joindre.

What little evidence we have does suggest a French development -nct-

> -int- parallel to -ct- > -it-.

There is a Provençal sanct 'saint', but I suppose the <c> can be
dismissed as an etymological restoration.

Richard.
Richard.