Re: French <chez>

"Chez" seems to come from Latin "casa" used in a
prepositional sense.

According to the Trésor de la Langue française
http://atilf.inalf.fr
the main meaning is 'inside, considered as the place
where typical phenomenons take place'.
Main uses:
- in the house of, in the store of, etc.
- inside / among a small community (couple, family)
- inside / among a larger community (city, village,
religion, country)
- among a class of beings that is being described (ex:
chez les mollusques)

The older form was "chiés" (about 1130).

--- Pavel Iosad <edricson@...> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> > 'Chez' requests normally that what follows is
> animated
> > (and human). [snip]
>
> What knowledge of French I have (a rather puny item)
> seems to confirm
> this. Isn't it like Swedish 'hos'? (Daniel, BP,
> Andreas, Jessica,
> anyone?).
>
> On the other hand, _chez_ does look a lot like if it
> might be descended
> from _casâ_ (ablative, with the Romance ablative
> shift)? Can anyone
> confrim/deny?
>
> Pavel
> --
> Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru
>
> Nid byd, byd heb wybodaeth
>                  --Welsh saying

=====
Philippe Caquant

"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

Reply