FW: [tied] Re: Romance Pequeno, Pequeño, Petit, Piccolo

In the dialects of my region (Abruzzo, Italy) an adjective < *picculus is very seldom used and probably only under the influence of standard Italian. Contrarily to adjectives meaning 'large, big', *picculus is never used in toponymy, where diminutive suffixes (-etto, -ino, -ello, etc.) are used instead. An adjective looking very archaic is <nicche> (often duplicated, <nicche nicche>) which fits the discussion here, although no direct Greek influence can be assumed for the Abruzzo.
Regards,

Antonio


-----Original Message-----
From: Abdullah Konushevci [mailto:a_konushevci@...]
Sent: Thu 4/1/2004 10:51 PM
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Cc:
Subject: [tied] Re: Romance Pequeno, Pequeño, Petit, Piccolo

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "m_iacomi" <m_iacomi@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" wrote:
>
Romanian "pic" `small quantity (of something)` assumed onomatopoeic.
Romanian word "mic" (`small`) and Sicilian counterpart "nicu"
(`id.`) related to a Greek word, possibly through a VL intermediate
*miccus; also Catalan and Italian "mica" `small quantity, nothing` (<
Lat. "mic(c) a") fit in here.
To be noted Romanian "pitic" `dwarf`, correlated by DEX authors with
(OC) Slavic "pitikU", word in fit also with Romances.

Regards,
Marius Iacomi
************
I don't know how much these roots could be onomatopoeic or
expressive, but I know for sure that they have PIE form *mei- 'small'
(Watkins, *mei-2, Pokorny, *mei-5) and *peig^-/peik^- 'to cut, mark
(by incision)'. According to Watkins, this root is treated in satem
languages as not ending in palatal, but like in pure velar. I
remember that this second root was treated in length in Cybalist,
until first one I am not sure.
I believe that Rom. <pik> 'small quantity (of something)' can't be
separated from Alb. <pikë> 'point, drop, small quantity' and
<picërr> 'bit, small part' as well as Rom. <mic> 'small' from Alb.
<micërr> 'trifle', <mickël> 'id.', <micërroj> 'to trifle'. I gues
that Alb. forms are dubble suffixed zero-grade forms *mi-sk-lo >
mickël (cf. also <pickoj> 'to pinch, to nib'). etc.

Konushevci





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