--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "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).
>>
>> Italian "zizza" is supposed to be from a Longobard "*zizza".
>
> OK, loans from Germanic then, including the unaffricated Romance
> forms.
>
>>> 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".
>>
>> DEX and most authors relate it to a Latin "*tit[t]ia". Also to
>> be noted Basque "titia", Estonian "tis", meaning 'female breast'.
>> Most probably, the word was originally onomatopoeic [children
>> language].
>
> What does Latin *_tit(t)ia_ explain?
It explains Romanian form; Italian "tetta" is seen as deriving from
Latin "titta(m)" (`nipple, teat`, given as such by Italian linguists)
probably also French "tette" (which is usually seen as deriving from
a Germanic "*titta"). The Latin word could be a loan from Germanic
but as well a childish onomatopoeic word, very general (Catalan "teta"
is given as such: "d'origen expressiu infantil"). My guess is that
the word is a perfect candidate for childish language.
Romanian "TâTã" has a childish conterpart /TiTi/ which can be seen
also as plural, but has had without any doubt influenced the phonetic
story of the word (that is: no need of Latin "*tit[t]ia" when having
"titta", then by childish assimillation one generates the second /T/).
Stressed /i/ > /1/ (written "â") after /T/, no mistery on this either.
> Basque "titia" does not appear to be a loan from Latin "*tit[t]ia"
> either - see, for example, Miguel's account at
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nostratic-L/message/44>.
I had a look on the article but I didn't found anything preventing
Basque "titia" from being a Latin loanword, maybe Miguel would be so
kind and make his point on this. OTOH, as said, I see all these words,
with their repetitive consonants, as belonging to childish language;
normal language "recovered" in some idioms some shorter forms with
similar meaning and not-too-different phonetics.
Regards,
Marius Iacomi