>Isaac A. Penzev <isaacp@...> writes:
>
>> Can anybody help me to find the origins of Spanish phonemes /ch/ and /j/
>> for my Arabo-Romance project?
>>
>> I know that /ch/ in many positions originates from consonant clusters
>> *-ct- like in noche < *nocte and *-lt- like in escuchar < *a(u)scultare.
>> But how do we get all those _chiquitas_ and _muchachos_?
>
>According to my dictionary, _chico_ (whence _chiquitas_) < Latin _ciccum_.
>I don't know about _muchachos_ (though -ach- is found in a few words with
>a despective/familiar meaning, like _mamarracho_). Apparently Latin /ki/
>and /ski/ (sometimes /si/, as in /sifila:re/ > "chillar") became /tSi/
>"chi" (note you wrote /ch/, but that's phonemic notation). Perusing
>through the dictionary, it seems like most of the words beginning with
>"ch" are borrowings, usually from French (_chaufeur_ > "chofer"), Nahuatl
>(_tzictli_ > "chicle"), Quechua (_chakra_ > "chacra"), or Arabic itself
>(_jali:ka_ > "chaleco"), with a few ones from other Native American
>languages and others from English ("cheque").
>
>--Pablo Flores
>
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/nyh/index.html