Re: CHAT Etruscana (was: Oh! Kay! (was : ...etc))

On Sunday, February 29, 2004, at 02:31 AM, John Cowan wrote:

> Ray Brown scripsit:
[snip]

>> Certainly the first month of the pre-Julian calendar, March, is named
>> after Mars <-- Martius (mensis). But he was an important god to the early
>> Romans, with both agricultural & military interests before being equated
>> with the Greek Ares. But IIRC the name Mars is of Etruscan origin.
>
> I had understood that the o:rs part of Ma:vo:rs > Mars was cognate with
> Ares, and only the Mav- part was of unknown origin.  But this may be
> another half-baked story.
I would think so. The two gods were not very similar in their earliest
manifestation; it was just the best identification the Romans could come
up with.  The Greek name and its declined forms must be formed from a stem
*ares- (with short vowels); it's difficult to see how that relates to
-o:rs except by folk etymology.

>> There are some other English indirect borrowings from Etruscan, e.g.
>
> IIRC "persona" is Etruscan too, and that the etymology
> "per sonem" is also folk only.
Yes, 'per sonem' is certainly folk etymology. Yes, it's from an etruscan
persu- / phersu-

[zed/zee dealt with in another mail]

>
>>> If L1 speakers can teach other L1 speakers that "potatoe" is the correct
>>> spelling of "potato", nothing is too surprising.
>>
>> From what I remember, it was one particular L1 speaker   :)
>
> He wasn't alone, alas.  My wife was also taught this spelling in the
> North Carolina schools in the 50s, and may well have passed it on to
> some of her students (before I stopped her).  She describes being
> explicitly taught the mnemonic "pot a toe", so it can't be accidental.
Good gracious. I've never come across that over here. Is this peculiar to
the US? If so, why?

Ray
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