Re: [tied] spanish perro

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:14:33 +0000, "William H."
<hittite1221@...> wrote:

>
>
>i think this was addressed before, but i will bring it up again. i
>am curious to know where the spanish word perro originated. it
>appears not to have arrived from latin "caninus" or
>nahuatl "chichi". could it be from a prehispanic language of the
>iberian peninsula such a lusitanian, aquitanian, or iberian?

Certainly not from the last two, which didn't have p-.

The word probaaly comes from "prrr", or "brrr", the
traditional command given to sheepdogs to assemble the
flock. Cf. Catalan <gos> "dog", from a similar calling cry
("k(u)sss, "gusss"). The original words, Sp. <can>, Cat.
<ca> were displaced by the neologisms, as in English <hound>
vs. <dog>.

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