Re: Droppin' D's Revisited

Eric Christóferson wabbe:

> > "-(i)ac" exists only with proper nouns, it's not a
> > productive ending anymore. Much more productive
> > is the two forms ending -ais/-ois which derives
> > names of langs, people and adjectives from places
> > (like France -> français - françois in Old French -,
> > Angleterre -> anglais, Hollande -> hollandais,
> > Saint-Etienne -> Stéphanois, Gaule -> gaulois,
> > etc...).
>
> Hmm, I like <-(i)ac>. I wonder if it has any relation to
> Spanish <-ez>/<-iz>/<-az> (as in Rodríguez, Ruiz,
> and Díaz)?
AFAIK, the <-ez> ending in Spanish surnames is from Germanic
(Visigoth?) origin, origianlly a patronym.  It was originally, if I'm
not mistaken, a genitive.

Of course, it could have also be a calc, using a Latin derived suffix
for a Germanic concept.  Those details I ignore.

-- Carlos Th