Bogdan Giusca (disc) wrote:
> Hello alex,
>
> Friday, December 12, 2003, 11:12:14 PM, you wrote:
>
> a> Check the archives. It was discussed here some time ago together
> with a> "mâTã" (Alb. maca)
>
> Could this be linked with English cat name "Mittens" ? :)
>
> a> , motan ( no other paralels, unknown etymology).
> a> The fact "motan" & "mâTã" are related appears as a
> a> wishfullthinking to some people since just "mâTã" has a
> correspondent in a> Albanian, its masculine counterpart (motan) being
> a gift from the a> Dominus Deus , thus with explainable unknown
> etymology.
>
> How about "matou" in French ? It has the same meaning: "male cat"
That is the problem of some Romanists which cannot belive in common
words in Romance _without_ any Latin help. I don't know if the words are
related in French and Romanian but for sure the cat name in English
remains just a name.
I am thinking now at a certain word in Slavic but I don't remember well
if it is the right one or not. Maybe Piotr or some other Slavic speakers
will got it and remember about something like "*mac^ka" or something
like this which means "cat". Or is this a loan into Serbian from
Albanian "mace"?
Interesting even in German we have this word. For instance the Albanian
word "macë" has the another form "micë"; In German for "kat" it is used
"mieze Katze"; the word "mieze" is given in German as onomatopea as
being developed from the "mi-mi" interjection which is used for calling
the cats.
Maybe these information will help some people get some conclusions.
Alex