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Re: Wenedyk - Adjectives

From:Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 18, 2002, 19:37
 --- Wipra£a Icyk skrzypszy:

> >>>>>>>>>>> > > What's the reason for using Classical Latin suffixes in degrees of > > comparison? |brzewi?r| was rather lofty already in times of Cicero. > > [...] Are you sure they had already vanished from spoken language that > early? It seems to me that some remnants of particularly the superlative > forms survived in Italian ("bellissima!") > <<<<<<<<<<<<<< > > In fact, I'm not sure. I'm not a Romance philologist. My sources say > that compound forms became normal in IV-V cc. AD. Suffixal methode was > productive in Old French and Old Provencal. Superlative forms are > still nor,al in Italian in all registers of speech. (Alisova et al. > Intro to Romance Philology. Moscow, 1987)
That's comforting enough. I had already trouble enough to get those Romans in Slavic territory, but it would be much more trouble to keep them there for centuries :) I think they left Venedian territory mniej wiêcej in the same period when they left Dacia. So the |iór| forms can stay a while longer :)
> "short": > Fr. court, bref > It. breve, corto > Sp. breve, corto > Port. curto, breve > Rom. scurt > > So this is Românian that confused me! Sorry! Both are possible. Still > |breve| souds a bit bookish to me.
Well, it might have been bookish, but on Venedian territory it became popular. Perhaps the Romans who got there were educated or so :) How nice to be omnipotent in your own con-world! :)) On the other hand, a form based on |curtus| would be attractive as well, especially since the Polish word is |krótki|!
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> > Sigh! Where can I find a decent Vulgar Latin word list? It would be > much easier than checking every Latin word in at least six dictionaries > first! > <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< > > I have none, but I find searching in dictionaries amusing ;)
Granted, but it's quite time-consuming as well, and time is all I have not at the moment :( But okay, today I had a bit of time, and now I'm sitting in front of my desk with four dictionaries: Latin, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> > 2. I would find it difficult to make up something credible on the > basis of |nov-| and |ill-|. It could be tempting to try, though. Perhaps > I will. > <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< > > Românian does this, when adj. is in preposition to noun, because > *illus became a postpositive definite article there! > |bàrbatul frumos| versus |frumosul bàrbat| "the handsome man" (< > *barbatus illus formosus)
Nice! But it's not the same, since in the Romanian case it's just a suffixed article. In Wenedyk such forms would have to appear all the time, and what's even worse, they would have to be inflected!
> >>>>>>>>>>>>> > NB I have been wondering which Latin word to choose for "snake" in > Wenedyk: |anguis| or |serpens|. I guess I must leave you the choice :) > <<<<<<<<<<<<< > > [...] So it may come from |serpens|, but I think smth from |vîpera| would > please me :-)) > How it sounds? |wipierz|?
Sounds okay to me, but logically this would become |wipra| in Wenedyk. The diminutive (admittedly I'm not that far yet) would probably be something like |wipra£a|. I'm not going to kill the serpent, though. |sierpiêc| could survive as a way to insult an unpleasant woman, while |serpent| will always remain a musical instrument. Best regards, Jan ===== "Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com