Richard Wordingham wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex_lycos" <altamix@...> wrote:
>> Cununã seems to be the very old word if we take a look at the
>> phonological aspect.I guess this is to find in "frunzã" which
> seems to
>> be older as the Latin "frondia".( BTW do you know the
> demonstration of
>> Timotei Cipariu regarding Rom. "frunza" and Latin "frondia"?)
>
> No. The rules, as I encoded them (too) many months ago, happily
> derive frunzã from both *frondia and *frundia. The biggest problem
> with this word is that the neuter plural form is not attested in
> Classical Latin - Classical Latin has fro:ns, frond-, which is
> feminine. Its older form is fru:ns, frund-, and the n.s. forms
> fru:s and fro:s are both attested. What is your point?
>
> Richard.
First, I am not aware of the demonstration made by the Latinist Timotei
Cipariu for showing exactly how he considered this, this is why I asked
about if someone know it. I can just quote as follow from what I
remember of his words:
"daca stãm oblu si gandim drept, apai pare ca limba Româna ar fi muma
celei Latinesti si nu invers".
Mr Iacomi and Mr Stanca maybe remember better about this or maybe even
know the demonstration of him, I will try to translate:
"if we think right, it appears as if Rom. Lang should be the mother of
Latin Language and not vice versus".
Of course it appears "irresponsible" a such affirmation but there are
many words where some linguists amused about considering "we cannot
speak about Latin before Latin" and this sentence was made up due the
Romanian words which request a protoform of the Latin word.(Details if
requested but I am afraid for instance Miguel is aware of such
situations)
Now to "frunzã". "Frunzã" is a feminine noun and it can derive from
*frunsa, *fronso/*frunsa or even the forms *frondia, frundia if we
accept that "dia-" > "zã" (my opinion here is that in such suffix there
is an *-so/*-sa > zã)
Now which is your problem exactly? The fact that the form "frondia" is
not the one atested ? It shoudln't be a problem, there are a lot of
reconstructed forms they fit and VulgarLatin was full of irregularities,
wasnt it?
frunzã= cf DEX < Latin "frondia"(< frons, frondis)
Alex