Re: Chico [...]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:

> On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 13:49:12 +0000, m_iacomi
>
>> 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).

OK, I see. So one can accept a probable Mozarabic influence for
"chico" if not loanword.

>> The Basque word is to be considered, but since the word is
>> rather widespread in Romance [...] 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.

Would the Basque variant "txiki" explain phonetically "chico"
or one would expect a Castillian "chiqui"?! If yes, could an
eventual "chiqui" > "chico"?!

Regards,
Marius Iacomi