Re: [tied] Romance Relatives of Latin _gingi:va_

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "m_iacomi" <m_iacomi@...> wrote:

>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "richardwordingham" wrote:
>
>>> I presume _gingie_ is stressed on the first syllable.
>
>> What made you think that?!
>
> The vowel of the first syllable. If we counterfactually ignore the
> fall of /v/, Latin _gingí:va_ should give Romanian _*gengívä_.

If first /i/ was short, maybe; don't forget the power of
assimilation though.

> Latin _*gíngi:va_ (not a possible stress until stress became
> lexical) would have given Romanian _*gíngivä_.

Latin stress doesn't migrate so easily on the way to Romanian.
Only some particular classes of words make it change. OTOH, with
your same arguments, why didn't you reconstructed from the second
a "Romanian" *gíngevä?! :-)

Regards,
Marius Iacomi