Where Caesar’s Latin does not belong: a comparative grammar based approach to Romance etymology

Eva BuchiATILF (CNRS &Nancy-Université)

ICHLL5 (St Anne’s College, Oxford, 16-18 June 2010)

Proto-Romance

Portuguese Sardinian Romanian

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This talk advocates a paradigm shiftin Romance inherited etymology

Comparative grammar =leading paradigm (bottom-up)

Except Romance languages: Latin (top-down)(cabăllus, dĕcĕm, hĕrba ↔ *abbĭbĕrare)

Recommends recreating Romance etymology on the basis of comparative grammar

Chambon

2007;

to appear

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The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966):

Cognates: Old Frisian, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old High German

Etymon: Common German (Proto-German)

Etymology of engl. (to) fall?

reconstructed

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Semantic equivalents in Romance etymology?

Italian cadere, French choir, Spanish caer ‘to fall’

Romanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (REW3 1935)

Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1861–1936)

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In Romance etymology, the comparative method is bypassed by mentions of Latin etyma

REW3:

Headword → classical Latin

Subentry → ‘fiddled with’ classical Latin

The headword does not account for Italian caderenor for any of its cognates!

not attested

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Comparative grammar?

Demonstration limited to the stressed syllable

Chambon

2007;

to appear

My claim: applying the comparative method to this etymological family deepens our understanding of its origin

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Rom. [kə'dea]

Dalm. [ka'dar]

It. [ka'dere]

Venet. ['kaze] Venet. [ka'dere]

Sicil. ['kadiri] Sicil. [ka'dere]

Fr. ['ʃwaR]

Occit. ['kaire] Old occit. [ka'zer]

Cat. ['kaurə] Old cat. [ka'der]

Sp. [ka'er]

Galic.-Port. [ka'er]

*/ka'd-e-re/*/'kad-e-re/

recessivetype

→older

stratum

extensivetype

→youngerstratum

2 inflectional types, 1 verb

Proto-Romance */'kad-e-/

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This stratigraphy is confirmed by historical data

300 B.C.

• */'kad-e-re/

100 B.C.

200 B.C.

• */ka'd-e-re/

A.D.

Raupach in Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik

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Let’s draw in Latin philology!

Lat. cadēre (late antiquity [4th century A.D.])

Lat. cadere (since Ennius [3rd/2nd century B.C.])

Hypothesis: */'kad-e-re/ and */ka'd-e-re/ = variants within the Latin diasystem (acrolect/basilect)

Earlier periods: spoken Latin contained both variantsLater on: it contained only */ka'd-e-re/

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So was Chambon right in his pleading?

1. Romance etymology:1 lexeme, 2 inflectional types, 2 diastratic varieties of Proto-Romance, internal stratification

Philip Durkin, The Oxford Guide to Etymology (2009: 10-11):‘Even though our surviving records for classical Latin are mostly literary and reflect a highly homogeneous literary language, there is indeed some variation in our surviving Latin evidence, and the later evidence of the Romance languages suggests the existence of a good deal of further variation in Latin which is not reflected in the surviving documentary evidence.’

Yes, the comparative method yields more interesting results than the ‘look it up in the Latin dictionary’ approach

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But there is more…

Proto-Romance

Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Germanic Proto-Slavic Latin

3. Indo-European etymology:Proto-Romance data compare, more easily than Latin data do, to Proto-x data

2. Latin etymology:deeper understanding of known data by placing them in the context of the diasystem of global Latin

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Comparative grammar is a valuable method to be applied in Romance inherited etymology

You may be tempted to challenge this generalization

Edited by Wolfgang Schweickard and Eva Buchi

Compiled by a team of 34 linguists based in 7 countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain)

DÉRom (Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman)

First stage (2008–2010) funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) and the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

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Goal of the DÉRom project: reconstructing the core lexicon of Proto-Romance (about 500 etyma)

Free Web site: http://www.atilf.fr/DERom

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All of the 24 downloadable entries lend support to the idea that comparative grammar is usefulREW3 DÉRom Variation within Proto-Romance

carpĭnus  /'karpɪn‑u/ (1.) */'karpɪn‑u/ fem. (2.1.) */'karpɪn‑u/ masc. (2.2.) */'karpɪn‑a/ fem.

facĕre */'ɸak‑e‑/ (1.) */'ɸak‑e‑re/(2.) syncopated */'ɸ‑a‑re/ (high

frequency in the synthetic future */ɸ‑a‑re‑'aβ‑e‑/ > French ferai)

laxāre */'laks‑a‑/ (1.) */'laks‑a‑/(2.) */'laks‑i‑a‑/ (colloquial interfixe)

pons, pŏnte

*/'pɔnt‑e/ (1.) masc.(2.) fem. (regularized)(3.) masc. (restaured)

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In conclusion, I hope you agree that applying Chambon’s methodological plea to Italian cadere and its cognates bore fruit

→ */'kad-e-/ example provided the opportunity for presenting the DÉRom project

Anatoly Liberman (2009: 96):‘In conformity with their genre, etymological dictionaries emphasize the results rather than the process of the investigation.’

→ occasion for self-explanation

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One might think that there are no major discoveries left to be made in Romance etymology

Georgia Green & Jerry Morgan, Practical guide to syntactic analysis (1996: 17):‘Beginning students are sometimes discouraged by the belief that ‘all the easy stuff’s already been done. What’s left is really hard.’ But when that ‘easy stuff’ is examined closely, it often turns out that it is only half-done, and that the conclusions do not follow from the premises (which often are not made explicit), or that the assumptions they are based on are no longer considered tenable. A surprising amout of the ‘easy stuff’ needs to be re-done.’

Because of its Latin-orientedness, Romance inherited etymology is only half-done

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Therefore Romance etymology needs a change of paradigm

Using from now on the technique of comparative reconstruction, Romance etymology shall be better integrated in general etymology

As to the course correction within Romance etymology, it will have to be carried out with tact…