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Re: Some questions about Romance langs

From:D Tse <exponent@...>
Date:Monday, May 21, 2001, 6:50
> > Oh... Thanks :) That's an interesting case of accelerated sound change (by > frequency of use, I suppose). I try not to make any statements about > Italian, because I don't know much about it; I could have sworn there's > a "como" in Italian too... (?) > > Now, I know Standard Italian retains the Latin 'qu' labio-velars... so if > there's a "como" in Italian (instead of, say, "quomo"), that's either a > case of even-more-accelerated sound change, or simply a borrowing from > French or Spanish (probably the latter, I'd guess (?)). >
It's "come" in Italian I believe, but it seems more like a borrowing from some other Romance language (more the French perhaps) than a very radical sound change.
> Now there's another thing; Lat "quo modo" is an interrogative ("how?"), > while Sp "como" can be either that, or an adverb ("this way", > "like that"); > in French however, "comme" can only have the adverbial meaning. >
Italian "come" functions as an interrogative, and the adverb ("like X"), and also as an exclamatory word like "What ...!" I think.
> Óskar

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Mangiat <mangiat@...>R: Re: Some questions about Romance langs