Re Span. ajo 'garlic' et al. Christophe wrote:
>I don't think it's irregular.
You're right, it's not, as I realized once other examples occurred
to me.
There is a well established correspondance between
>French final /j/ (written -il like in <ail>: garlic or <vieil>: old - the
form
><vieux> appears only before consonnants -) and Spanish final /xo/ (written
>-jo: <ajo> and <viejo>). I don't know the Italian correspondant of <vieil>
>though, nor the Latin correspondant (I'd like to know it because it's been
quite
>a long time that I'm wondering what it would be in "Roumant". I'm trying to
find
>a cool ending corresponding to French <-il>. Maybe something like <-ix>
/i(S)/).>
Ital. vecchio (Port. velho)-- I'm not sure of the Proto Romance or Latin
either, but Ital. suggests a consonant+/l/ cluster, not */...ilV.../....
Maybe something based on Lat. vetus (?) ???*vetulu-. Cf. Engl. veteran;
Span. and Ital vetusto 'ancient'.
(My Ital. dictionary also gives vegliardo 'old man'-- I'd suspect a
borrowing from Fr. vieillard (spelling?) )