Re: Proto-Romance *ve:ci:nus 'neighbour'

From: m_iacomi
Message: 28849
Date: 2003-12-28

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

>> But vi:ci:nus= vec^in, vi:ci:nita:s= vec^inãtate which shows
>> an "e" from an long latin /i/.
>> The posibility should be that the word is not inherited.
>
> I apologise if I've already raised this topic.
>
> Spanish _vecino_ and French _voisin_ point to *ve:ci:nus (or
> *vici:nus).

Why?! We deal with unstressed vocalism. Cf. Varvaro - "Linguistica
Romanza", for instance: "nel sistema 'romanzo comune' [Latin] i
[short] e: e [short] hanno dato /e/ [...] nel sistema balcanico
la serie anteriore è la stessa". So "vici:num" (short unstressed
/i/ only) could explain Spanish <vecino>; OTOH, French <voisin>
and OF <veisin> are usually explained through VL "*veci:nus".

> Although Italian _vicino_ appears to derive from _vi:ci:nus_,

Appears, but it is not. See Rohlfs: [/e/ ed /i/ protoniche
della sillaba iniziale] "Le vocali atone /e:/, /e/ [short], ed
/i/ [short] si sono confuse nelle lingue neolatine in un unico
grado fonetico /e/. In buona parte della Toscana c'è una tendenza
fortemente spiccata a far diventare /i/ questa /e/" (as known,
literary Italian language is based on Tuscan dialect).

> Romanian _vecin_ is irregular; I would expect *vãcin.

If you start up with "vi:ci:nus" (which is CL), you'll end up
with Romanian "*vicin" which could arguably dissimilate into
modern "vecin" (Rohlfs admits it too for Italian). Conversely,
you may try "vici:nus" or "*veci:nus" (as for French); unstressed
Latin /e/ does not go always in /&/ even in the first syllable:
"venenum" > "venin", "venire" > "veni", "berbecem" (CL "vervex") >
"berbec(e)", etc.

Regards,
Marius Iacomi