24-08-03 03:28, Richard Wordingham wrote:
> "TâTã" is mildly curious. It appears to be a loan from German
> _Zitze_ 'udder', as does Italian _zizza_ (not in my dictionary).
> The German word is cognate with English (and Dutch) _tit_ 'teat',
> and Spanish, Provençal _teta_ and French _tette_. I can't account
> for the "â" of "TâTã".
You can add Pol. <cyc> /ts1ts/, dim. <cycek> 'tit', quite certainly from
German. Romanian <â> stands for a _high_ central vowel (the phonetic
value of <â> and <î> is the same), surely not an impossible substitute
for the German vowel. Being a lallwort, and an easily borrowed one at
that, the word is of little value as comparative evidence. Cf. Hit.
ti(t)tai-, ti(t)tiya- 'suckle, nurse', Luw. titai(m)mi-, Lyc. tideimi-
'son', Pol. dzidzia 'baby', etc. -- parallell nursery reduplications
rather than cognates.
Piotr