Re: Cattle Trouble

On Tuesday, January 6, 2004, at 01:42 AM, Miguel wrote:

> Bou is Catalan for ox[*]. In Romanian we would have expected
> bovem > *bouã (like novem > nouã). That *bouã was altered to
> bou is not surprising: cutting off a bull's balls doesn't make
> the ox feminine.

Exactly. (Now and then, jokingly, some people, esp. children
use/invent a feminine form of <bou> => <boauã> ['boa-w&] or
[bO-w&]. The same apply to <porc> => <poarcã>. Of course, the
no-nonsense feminine word remains <scroafã> (in Transylvania &
other neighbor areas is pronounced without diphtongation:
['skrO-f&].)

George