Re[2]: [tied] substratum ( it was Re: Creole Romance?)

At 1:23:09 PM on Tuesday, June 24, 2003, alex wrote:

> Miguel Carrasquer wrote:

>>> 2)one example here: the word, "mare"= great is
>>> considered to belong to substratum. In Albanian the word
>>> is "madh", in OF was "mare"

>> I'm not aware of any OF word <mare> "big".

> Chanson of Roland:
> vers 1604
> dient Franceis: barun, tqnt mare fus
> vers 2195 Aprés a dit: Mare fustes seigneurs

> vers 2221 Dist l'arcevesque : Tant mare fustes ber!

That's <mar(e)> from Latin <mala hora>, 'in an evil hour, in
vain, to no purpose'. It has nothing to do with <ma(i)re>,
the nominative case of <maior> 'greater'.

> Paranthesis. I am not sure if "ber" here is a short form
> of "baron".

<Ber> is the nominative case; <baron> is the oblique case.
The word is of Germanic origin.

Brian