Skip to main content

All Questions

Tagged with
Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
1 vote
0 answers
126 views

How Italian "dito" was derived from Latin DĬGĬTU(M)?

I'm trying to figure out which phenomena may be involved in the development of Italian "dito" from Latin DĬGĬTU(M). I think one of them may be a loss of intervocalic -G-, as explained in ...
Charo's user avatar
  • 176
7 votes
2 answers
721 views

How did Gothic "𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌱𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌹" (andbahti) become Medieval Latin "ambasiator"?

I found the following etymology of the word "ambassador" on Wiktionary. From Middle English ambassadore, from Anglo-Norman ambassadeur, ambassateur, from Old Italian ambassatore, ...
Chickly's user avatar
  • 125
7 votes
2 answers
602 views

Apparent exceptions to the sound law f -> h in old Spanish

At some point during the evolution of Spanish, several initial [f] became silent (this is represented with an h in modern Spanish). This explains words such as hacer, harina, herir and many more. ...
Qwertuy's user avatar
  • 713
6 votes
0 answers
303 views

Has the development of double consonants in Latin been studied?

When one studies both Latin and Greek, one of the most prominent differences between the two is the much greater number of double consonants in Latin. While Greek does have some instances of them, ...
theoremseeker's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

How did Latin get its stress pattern?

As far as I know, Latin had a word-initial accent for some time of its history after losing the Indo-European accent. I am wondering why Latin then switched to an ante-/pen-ultima stress pattern.
unknown_person_1000's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
364 views

*sn > n (in Latin)

The older consonant cluster sn- loses its s in Latin: nix "snow" vs. English snow cēna "supper" vs. older Latin cesna Two questions: 1) Since word-medial -sn- was clearly lost within the history ...
user8017's user avatar
  • 1,387
1 vote
3 answers
525 views

How did the English word inveigle evolve from the Latin aboculus?

inveigle Early corruption of French aveugler (“to blind, to delude”), from aveugle (“blind”), from the Old French avugle (“without eyes”), from Latin ab + oculus (“eye”). ...
archenoo's user avatar
  • 1,727
7 votes
1 answer
290 views

Why does "-b-" differ between L “offero” and L "aufero"?

offero From ob ("towards") + ferō ("bear, carry") aufero From ab ("from") + ferō ("bear, carry") Both prefixes of them end with "-b-", but why do their compounds differ from each other, namely ...
archenoo's user avatar
  • 1,727
5 votes
2 answers
615 views

How does the sound change from L. "benedictionem" to O.Fr. "beneiçon" happen?

benison c.1300, "blessing, beatitude," from O.Fr. beneiçon "blessing, benediction," from L. benedictionem (see benediction). Similarly, the word malison comes in the exact way described above. In ...
archenoo's user avatar
  • 1,727
11 votes
4 answers
3k views

How does the initial consonant in "Jupiter" and "Zeus" come from the "d" in PIE "*dyew-"?

Jupiter, is from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“sky”) (whence also Latin diēs). Cognate with Ancient Greek Ζεύς (Zeus), Hittite 𒅆𒍑 (sius), Sanskrit द्यु (dyú). The nominative Iuppiter comes from ...
archenoo's user avatar
  • 1,727