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----- Original Message ----- From: "Benct Philip Jonsson" <bpj@hidden.email>
To: <romconlang@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 9:03 AM Subject: Re: [romconlang] Small sweet things
[Germano-Romance, diminutives] Based on the prevalence of the -l and -le diminutives in the southern part of the German Sprachraum -- i.e. where the really funky things happened with the language -- I'd expect the diminutives of your lang to come from -ULUS/A and -ILLUS/A, thus Zinftetschenle or Zinftetschenelle. Of course Zinftetschenle sounds and looks most authentic, but be aware that in OTL Vulgar Latin -ULUS ceased to be a productive diminutive ending, with half an exception for Italian -- i.e. I suspect instances there are later borrowings from Classical Latin.
Following my GMP I'd end up with
S P
Dir -el* -elle *maybe -ell by analogy to other forms
Gen -elliese -eller
Dat -elle -elle
The masculine and feminine fall into together very early only. By the 6th
Century only the DatS, DirP and GenP still mark gender, and all gender
distinction is lost by the middle of the 11th Century. So interestingly, we
go from the Latin system of the diminutives being the same gender as the
original noun to a German system were the diminutives are/appear to be of
the same, potentially contradictory gender (neuter in German, masculine in
Rienench). I wonder if natural gender might be preserved, or if you might
have peculiarities like 'das Mädchen'?
I actually like this more than the 'genuine' -ITTUS from VL. I should put BP on a retainer... ;)
Pete