--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 18:22:59 +0000, m_iacomi wrote:
>
>>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" wrote:
>>
>>>> In principle yes, but the Portuguese equivalent "chico"
`small`;
>>>> `flat (sea)`; `ancient coin of 40 centavos` is usually given from
>>>> Latin "ciccum" (or even Ital. "cico" `thing of little value` --
>>>> the It. actual word is "cica" and is rather rare, regional and
>>>> archaic - its origin is anyway related to the same Latin "ciccum"
>>>> `worthless object`, `trifle`). Semantics, phonetics and geography
>>>> (Catalan "xic") point towards this etymon.
>>
>>> The shift ci- > chi - it's a feature of Aragonese, I think.
>>
>> Lat. acernia > Port. cherne (It. cernia), or Lat. cimi:ce- > Port.
>> chinche would support that even in Portuguese one can have this
>> kind of evolution, though these words could be very well loaned
>> as in other cases (Port. chichisbéu < It. cicisbeo, Port. chinar <
>> Sp. chinar, Port. chitão < Sp. chiton, etc.). I am not familiar
>> with all details about Iberic dialects, maybe Miguel would be so
>> kind to give a more pertinent opinion (I would pick a Castillian
>> intermediate, but the same Latin etymon).
>
> c(e/i) > ch(e/i) is not Aragonese, as far as I know (what's
> Aragonese is ge/i, j- > che/i, e.g. germanus > chermá(n),
> chirmán or juvenis > chove(n)), as well as -ll- > -ch-
> (valle > bache).
>
> The result c > ch is only regularly seen in Mozarabic
> (giving a few words in Spanish, such as chinche, chícharo).
The same examples are given by Granaio in Fonologia Romanza, but
with a slightly different explanation:
"Nello spagnuolo [...] alcuni esemplari mostrano la risoluzione
palatina trascritta con <ch>: "chico" < CICCU, "chícharo" <
CICERE, "chinche" < CIMICE, acc[anto] all'a[ntico] "zisme"; ma
deve essere fenomeno abbastanza moderno, come lo prova il fatto
che vi sono soggette parole semidotte, quali: "chistera" `cesta
di pescatore` acc[anto] al pop. "cestilla", "chisme" per "cisma"
`schisma`".
Of course, he might not been aware of Mozarabic phonology and
assume these words as later loans rather than results of later
spurious evolution. Are there in Spanish other examples than
these ones (focus on words not present in Mozarabic)?!
> As to chico, xic, there's of course also Basque txiki ~
> txipi "small" to consider. Coromines also mentions Occitan
> chic, Sardinian ticcu and Italian zica, cicco, cica. He
> concludes that we're dealing with an expressive formation,
> only partially or indirectly related to Latin ciccum.
Might be that Meyer-Lübke is still the basic reference:
REW 1899 ciccum 1."Kerngehäuse des Obstes" 2.*"Kleinigkeit"
1. + COCCUS 2002: ital. <chicco> "Kern", "Beere", "Bohne" [...]
2. Ital. <cicca> (> frz. <chique>) "Zigarrenstummel", mail.
<c^ic^> "Kleinigkeit", bergell. <c^ic^> "verbrannter Docht",
frz. <chiche> "kleinlich", "habsüchtig", katal. <xich> "klein",
span. <chico> "klein", portg. <chico> "kleine Geldmünze" [...]
-+ MICA 5456: ital. <cica> "kleinigkeit" - Diez, Wb.98
(the 2nd meaning has still a star in REW but, Ernout-Meillet DELL
has another opinion: -> ciccum, -i n. [...] s'emploie comme <hi:lum>,
<raucum> M.L. 1899. Emprunt au gr. <kíkkos> "loge de pépins de
la grenade" et fig. "un rien, un zeste". Le discri:men de Varron
rappelle la glosse d'Hésychius <kikkós... diachwrêsis>).
The Basque word is to be considered, but since the word is
rather widespread in Romance (even in Romanian, "cicãli" looks
pretty well as natural derivative of the same Latin "ciccum"
through the meaning `to reproach repeatedly small/insignificant
things (facts, actions)`, though DEX prefers the prudent answer
"unknown etymology"), I would still favor its Latin origin.
Basque "txiki" can be very well a loanword: if Basque word can
explain Iberic terms, for Italian (including dialectal forms &
meanings), Romanian (if one accepts the relationship above) and
Sardinian it fails.
For the phonetism, a straightforward explanation would be known
influence of Mozarabic (as in the other examples previously seen)
on Spanish (somehow like surprising French "amour" instead of a
regular form "*ameur", due to Occitan troubadours); one cannot
dismiss completely the hypothesis of Italian loan or expressive
improvement of the word with /tS/ instead of lenited consonant(s).
Of course, there is also the possibility to have a parallel
expressive formation, but that would make too much coincidences
for my taste. :-)
Regards,
Marius Iacomi