Re: [tied] Re: Chico [...]

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 13:49:12 +0000, m_iacomi
<m_iacomi@...> wrote:

> 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)?!

Mozarabic is not very well documented. In general, if we
find ch- for c- in Castilian, Mozarabic is the usual
explanation (even if the Mozarabic word is not documented).

> 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.

Yes. However, Basque txiki ~ txipi doesn't seem to be a
loanword from Romance (we would expect txiku). Looks like
an independent expressive formation.

> 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. :-)

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...