Re: THEORY: Evolution of infixes/ablaut?

Eric Christopherson skrev:

> Wow, now this is interesting. I've thought a bit about this before,
> but have never heard of anyone infixing in Spanish. Does anyone
> else say _azuquitar_? (Sadly "small sugar" seems like a concept which
> would be very rarely discussed.)
Well, remember Spanish doesn't have a strong classification of mass/count
nouns.  _azuquita(r)_ couls also mean a "small quantity of sugar".  There is
a Salsa song that is actually called "Azuquita pal Café" (I'm not sure which
orthography they used).  But Caribbean dialects usually drop word final /r/
so it is not clear if the <r> exists or not.  When singing I don't pronounce
that /r/, but my tongue gets a some retroflex position.

I was thinking on other words ending in unstressed vowel followed by
consonant and realised that, even if _viruscito_ would be my first choice
for a small _virus_, _viritus_ also sounds natural... _virito_ would also be
acceptable in my idiolect.

-- Carlos Th

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  Carlos Eugenio Thompson Pinzón
  Bogotá, Colombia
  ICQ: 19156333
  URL: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/9028/