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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