Re: Dominus (Was: Re: Werewolf)

Paul Bennett wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
>
>>From: caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
>>Sent: Sep 18, 2006 2:42 PM
>>
>>It would not surprise me to learn that "domnisoara" was cognate
>>to "demoiselle." Rumanian has other l > r words.
Yep - but cognate only in so far as both are, I think, derived from
diminutives of Latin _domna_ (forms without medial -i- were occasionally
found even in the Classical period).

VL /E/ does not become become /oa/ in Romanian, nor did intervocalic
/ll/ become /r/, only intervocalic /l/. The ending -oara suggests to me
a form derived from the familiar Latin diminutive ending -ula. I would
tentatively suggest *domniciula, but did medial -ci- before a vowel
become |ş| /S/ in Romanian??

French _demoiselle_ is from a Latin *domnicella. French also has the
masculine equivalent _damoiseau_ <-- *domnicellu(m); it now has a
pejorative meaning of "fop, dandy".

In Old French both words were applied to people of noble birth, the
masculine being applied to young men of noble birth & the feminine to
any lady, whether married or not, of noble birth. The modern uses are
later developments.

>>durere, ache < Latin dolor.
>>singur, alone < singulus.
>>mar, apple < malus.
>>par, hair < pelis
>>etc.
>
> There are lots of apparently nonsensical[*] sound changes and alternations all over PIE,
I do not see anything nonsensical about medial [r] becoming [l]. It is
AFAIK not an uncommon change, nor is it confined to IE langs.

[snip]
> [*]By which I mean more or less regular, but not easily understood without
> resorting to the "if /ni/ can become /a/" defense, which verges on the
> Chewbaccan.
But the point is that the change from archaic Chinese /ni/ to the modern
Yangchow dialect /A/ was effected by a series of *regular* (not more or
less, but precisely regular) sound changes. As Y.R. Chao pointed out
(and I quote) "all the steps being reflected in other parallel changes,
geographical as well as historical."

The point is that one cannot arbitrarily rule out a change of one set of
sounds into another, without knowing the diachronic development of
sounds in the related languages; I see nothing Chewbaccan in this. Thus,
one cannot arbitrarily rule out the possibility that Latin -icella
became -isoara in Romanian; one has to know how sounds developed from VL
to modern Romanian.

--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu.
There's none too old to learn.
[WELSH PROVERB}

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