Re: to swell

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 28789
Date: 2003-12-27

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" <alxmoeller@...> wrote:
> Italian word "gonfio", French "gonfle"
> I could find out the Latin "inflare" but wehre from is this "g"
here in
> Romance?

Try Latin confla:re 'to blow up, kindle, light' (look it up at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=la - my trusty
pocket dictionary doesn't give the sense 'blow up', which can arise
very easily from the meaning of fla:re 'blow; coin').

Sporadic confusion of /k/ and /g/ seems to be common cross-
linguistically.

Richard.