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--- Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@hidden.email> wrote: > --- Adam Walker skrzypszy: > > > I finally filled in an unforgivable hole in C-an > > vocabulary. I have titles for the nobility! > > Cool! I should work on those, too. > > Anyway, I take it "imperadoru, regu, princhipu, > ducu" are from > IMPERATOREM, REGEM, PRINCIPEM, DUCEM, while "cundi, > baruni, eletori" > are from COMITEM, BARONEM, ELECTOREM. What causes > the -u/-i > distinction (especially in the cases of "imperadoru" > vs. "eletori"? > Did I typo again? No. Just checking. Actually, while the Latin words you list are the ultimate sources of the C-a terms, they are all borrowings from either French or Italian except for emperor and king which are native developments. Quite anumber of words definitely refering to members of one sex or the other were reassigned to their "proper" gender early on in North African Vulgar Latin *there*. That's why regu still has a /g/ istaed of /dZ/ there. Prince is a sort of half-way form borrowed from the Italian "principe" and then "fixed". Same is true for marcizu which is either a French form or and Italian form slightly nativized. Etymologists argue about which language donated the term, but since the result would have been the same either way, it seems a moot point to me. Duke was borrowed from Italian it would seem, but the form of the word was interpreted as being the feminine so a new masculine was created. Actually this one could be from the French, too. Cundi is a borrowing from Italian with either some nativizing (t>d) or influence from Spanish. Baruni and eletori are straight borrowings from Italian with the later change of [o #_n > u]. > What's the etymology of "suvedu"? > It is a borrowing from Punic. The Punic name for the two magistrates in charge of the civil government of Carthage was "sufete". Another example of gender change. Maybe I should switch it back. Suvedi *would* give me one more neuter noun, and with an appointed post it isn't so (culturally) important to distinguish. Adam Jin xividjilud djal su�u ed falud ul Jozevu pomu instanchid ul andjelu djul Dominu sivi, ed idavi achibid jun al su sposa. Ed nun aved cu�uxud ad sivi ancha nadud jan ad ul sua huiju primodjindu ed cuamad il su numi ul Jezu. Machu 1:24-25