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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Question on Romance lexicon
Message-ID: <CzKwro.7JE@inter.NL.net>
Organization: /etc/organization
References: <3aifn2$dja@fs7.ece.cmu.edu> <STOLFI.94Nov19153946@stack.dcc.unicamp.br> <CzJr33.9B2@inter.NL.net> <3ana29$27h@gordon.enea.se>
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 18:30:59 GMT
Lines: 55

In article <3ana29$27h@gordon.enea.se>,
Erland Sommarskog <sommar@enea.se> wrote:
>Miguel Carrasquer (mcv@inter.NL.net) writes:
>>rubeus		gives Fr. rouge and Sp. rubio ("blonde"),
>>russ(e)us	gives Sp. rojo
>>
>>I'm not sure where Cat. ros "blonde" and roig "red" fit.
>
>Eh, to the plain and simple me "roig" and "rouge" looks very 
>close, but I might be missing some thing.
>
>And, I'm curious: how does one get from /rubews/ (?) to /ru:Z/?

I was confused.  In French, intervocalic -b- usually becomes 
fricative -v- (as in habere > avoir).  But in the presence of 
a yod, it drops altogether.  So we have:

rubeum > ro.biu > ro.ju > roudZ@ > ru:Z@ > ru:Z

Other examples are _cage_ and _sage_ "wise".

Now for the last two, Catalan has _ga`bia_ and _sabi_, so I
was under the impression that Catalan doesn't have this develop-
ment.  But I was wrong.   Badia i Margarit's Historical Grammar
gives:

< -b- dropped in vulgar latin>
habeo > ajo > ai > e  (written: he)
habeo > ajo > adZ     (written: haig)
habeam > aja > adZ@ > aZ@  (written: haja)
rubeum > roju > rodZ > rotS (written: roig)
rubea > roja > rodZ@ > roZ@ (written: roja)

< -b- maintained, before the accent : wZ >
*leviariu > lleuger
abbreviare > abreujar

< -b- maintained, after the accent : bi >
cavea > ga`bia
labium > llavi

Catalan `ros, rossa' (blonde) is probably derived from Lat.
russus, since -ss- normally stays unaltered in Catalan.

Castilian _rojo_ could then be the result of both
Vulgar Latin *ro.ju (for rubeum), or *ro.ssu (russ(e)um),
depending on how it was written in Old Castilian:
rojo [roZo] or roxo [roSo].  My etymological dictionary,
by deriving the word from _russ(e)um_, seems to imply that
it was roxo (as also suggested by Portuguese).

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
