On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 08:30:28 +0100, Christophe Grandsire
<christophe.grandsire@...> wrote:
>En réponse à jogloran <exponent@...>:
>Wow! Now it blurs even more the etymology of French "hôte". Whether it
comes
>from "hostis" or "hospes", or even if it's in fact two different homonyms,
the
>word ultimately derives from the same PIE root (which doesn't surprise me
at
>all, seen the resemblance between the two Latin words).
It seems that _hôte_ can be only < _hospitem_; _hostem_ would yield _hôt_
which would be confusing because of too many homonyms.
The final schwa in Old French is here of the same origin as in _(vous)
faites_ < _facitis_ (where the final vowel also belongs to the group which
doesn't yield schwa except in proparoxytons and after CR-clusters).
Basilius