Transcript Slide Template (Light Background)

Where Caesar’s Latin does not belong:
a comparative grammar based
approach to Romance etymology
Eva Buchi
Proto-Romance
ATILF (CNRS &
Nancy-Université)
ICHLL5 (St Anne’s
College, Oxford,
16-18 June 2010)
Portuguese
Sardinian
Romanian
This talk advocates a paradigm shift
in Romance inherited etymology
Comparative grammar =
leading paradigm (bottom-up)
Except Romance languages:
Latin (top-down)
(cabăllus, dĕcĕm, hĕrba ↔ *abbĭbĕrare)
Chambon
2007;
to appear
2
Recommends recreating
Romance etymology on the
basis of comparative grammar
Etymology of engl. (to) fall?
The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966):
reconstructed
Cognates: Old Frisian, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old High German
Etymon: Common German (Proto-German)
3
Semantic equivalents in
Romance etymology?
Italian cadere, French choir,
Spanish caer ‘to fall’
Romanisches Etymologisches
Wörterbuch (REW3 1935)
Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1861–1936)
4
In Romance etymology, the comparative method
is bypassed by mentions of Latin etyma
REW3:
not attested
Headword → classical Latin
Subentry → ‘fiddled with’ classical Latin
The headword does not account for Italian cadere
nor for any of its cognates!
5
Chambon
2007;
to appear
Comparative grammar?
My claim: applying the comparative method to this
etymological family deepens our understanding of
its origin
Demonstration limited to the stressed syllable
6
Proto-Romance */'kad-e-/
*/'kad-e-re/
*/ka'd-e-re/
Rom. [kə'dea]
Dalm. [ka'dar]
It. [ka'dere]
recessive
type
→
older
stratum
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]
7
2 inflectional types, 1 verb
extensive
type
→
younger
stratum
This stratigraphy is confirmed by historical data
A.D.
• */'kad-e-re/
• */ka'd-e-re/
100 B.C.
300 B.C.
200 B.C.
8
Raupach in Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik
Let’s draw in Latin philology!
Lat. cadere (since Ennius [3rd/2nd century B.C.])
Lat. cadēre (late antiquity [4th century A.D.])
Hypothesis: */'kad-e-re/ and */ka'd-e-re/ = variants
within the Latin diasystem (acrolect/basilect)
Earlier periods: spoken Latin contained both variants
Later on: it contained only */ka'd-e-re/
9
So was Chambon right in his pleading?
Yes, the comparative method yields more interesting
results than the ‘look it up in the Latin dictionary’ approach
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.’
10
But there is more…
2. Latin etymology:
deeper understanding of known data by placing
them in the context of the diasystem of global Latin
3. Indo-European etymology:
Proto-Romance data compare, more easily than
Latin data do, to Proto-x data
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Germanic
11
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Romance
Latin
Comparative grammar is a valuable method to be
applied in Romance inherited etymology
You may be tempted to challenge this generalization
DÉRom (Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman)
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)
First stage (2008–2010) funded by the ANR (Agence
Nationale de la Recherche) and the DFG (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft)
12
Goal of the DÉRom project: reconstructing the
core lexicon of Proto-Romance (about 500 etyma)
Free Web site: http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
13
All of the 24 downloadable entries lend support to
the idea that comparative grammar is useful
REW3
DÉRom
carpĭnus
/'karpɪn-u/ (1.) */'karpɪn-u/ fem.
(2.1.) */'karpɪn-u/ masc.
(2.2.) */'karpɪn-a/ fem.
facĕre
*/'ɸak-e-/
laxāre
*/'laks-a-/
pons,
pŏnte
*/'pɔnt-e/
14
Variation within Proto-Romance
(1.) */'ɸak-e-re/
(2.) syncopated */'ɸ-a-re/ (high
frequency in the synthetic future
*/ɸ-a-re-'aβ-e-/ > French ferai)
(1.) */'laks-a-/
(2.) */'laks-i-a-/ (colloquial interfixe)
(1.) masc.
(2.) fem. (regularized)
(3.) masc. (restaured)
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
→ occasion for self-explanation
Anatoly Liberman (2009: 96):
‘In conformity with their genre, etymological
dictionaries emphasize the results rather than the
process of the investigation.’
15
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
16
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…
17