Soleil

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Jan van Steenbergen
<ijzeren_jan@Y...> wrote:
 --- Charlie skrzypszy:

> And another thing!  Latin "sol," Spanish "sol," Portuguese "sol,"
> Italian "sole," Rumanian " soare.  Why are there 2 l's in the
> French "soleil"?  Is it, perhaps, from a diminutive such as
> *soliculus?
>>Hole in one! And what's more, it is a perfectly regular development.
>>Compare it to, for example AURIS > dim. AURICULA > Fr. _oreille_.
>>Especially French has a strong tendency towards using the Latin
>>diminutives as a source instead of the short form.
Jan


Thanks!  That's been plaguing me for years.  My next (rhetorical)
question is: Why would anyone want to make a diminutive
of "sun"?  "What a cute little sun!"  "Ear" I can understand!

Which prompts the question: if it's a regular development, why
does "oreille" have -lle, while "soleil" only has "-l"?

God, I love words!!!  :-)>

Charlie

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