From: tgpedersen
Message: 62991
Date: 2009-02-12
>I just noted Fr. bancal "bandy-legged, wobbly". 'Venetic' *w- > b-.
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@> wrote:
> >
> > On 2008-12-04 23:10, Arnaud Fournet wrote:
> >
> > > What is this model capable of predicting what is not already
> > > known by other means ?
> >
> > It makes quite a few non-trivial predictions. For example, that
> > high-frequency words will be universally conserved (resistant to
> > lexical replacement) but at the same time they will evolve
> > phonetically much faster than the bulk of the lexicon. I don't
> > know of any other model that can reconcile the general regularity
> > of sound change (i.e. the group behaviour of lexical sets) with
> > the observation that "chaque mot a son histoire" in a natural
> > way. Those individual histories are the more unique, the greater
> > the success of the word as a replicator (because it has more
> > opportunities to "mutate").
>
> À propos "chaque mot a son histoire":
> I fell over this looking for something else:
> Ernout-Meillet:
> 'uacillo: (uaccillo:, Lucr.3,502 tum quasi uaccillans consurgit et
> onnis | paulatim redit in sensus), -a:s, -a:ui:, -a:tum, -a:re :
> vaciller, chanceler (sens propre et dérivé).
> Mot favori de Cicéron; non attesté avant lui, rare dans la 1.
> impériale. Formes savantes dans les l. romanes, M.L.9112.
> Dérivés: uacilla:tio:, -tor (Gloss.).
> Mot expressif (cf. le type sorbillo:, etc.), d'origine obscure.
> Le -cc-, attesté chez Lucrèce, est un exemple de gémination
> expressive.'
>
> cf. Germ. wackeln "totter", Eng. waggle.
>
> The standard approach is to see the Lat. word as inherited, but
> given the late attestation, could it be a Germanic loan (with 2LV
> to boot)? Gladiator talk become fashionable? Or something picked up
> from the slaves?