Re: etyma for Craciun...

On Tue, Dec 30, 2003, at 01:21 PM, Mate wrote:

> Of course. If you are ignorant of the laws of Slavic accentuation
> which is
> quite different from Romanian. Romanian, I think, has always more or
> less
> the same stress pattern in words with the same sufix. Correct me if I
> am
> wrong. In Slavic, the situation is radically different. A sufix
> generally
> has no implication on word stress (especially in those early days) so
> there
> is no reason what so ever to change the accent.

But isn't there a higher frequency of stresses on the
first syllable in Serbian and Croatian? I'm ignorant
of Slavic languages, but I hear Serbo-Croatian on a
daily basis in the streets (incl. spoken by nextdoor
neighbors). I've got the same impression with Czech
and Slovakian.

> Kracˇun would be acceptable with root-stress the same
> as with final-stress.

In Serbo-Croatian?

> In Romanian, I don't think that crăciun with first-
> syllable stress would be acceptable if I am not
> wrong.

It'd sound... outlandish (and as though uttered by a
foreigner).

George