Where Caesar’s Latin does not belong: a comparative grammar based approach to Romance etymology Eva Buchi ATILF (CNRS & Nancy-Université) ICHLL5 (St Anne’s College, Oxford, June 2010) Proto-Romance PortugueseSardinianRomanian

2 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) Recommends recreating Romance etymology on the basis of comparative grammar Chambon 2007; to appear

3 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

4 Semantic equivalents in Romance etymology? Italian cadere, French choir, Spanish caer ‘to fall’ Romanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (REW ) Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1861–1936)

5 In Romance etymology, the comparative method is bypassed by mentions of Latin etyma REW 3 : Headword → classical Latin Subentry → ‘fiddled with’ classical Latin The headword does not account for Italian cadere nor for any of its cognates! not attested

6 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

7 Rom. [kə'dea] Dalm. [ka'dar] It. [ka'dere] Venet. ['kaze]Venet. [ka'dere] Sicil. ['kadiri]Sicil. [ka'dere] Fr. [' ʃ waR] 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/ recessive type → older stratum extensive type → younger stratum 2 inflectional types, 1 verb Proto-Romance */'kad-e-/

8 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

9 Let’s draw in Latin philology! Lat. cadēre (late antiquity [4 th century A.D.]) Lat. cadere (since Ennius [3 rd /2 nd 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 variants Later on: it contained only */ka'd-e-re/

10 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

11 But there is more… Proto-Romance Proto-Indo-European Proto-GermanicProto-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

12 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)

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

14 All of the 24 downloadable entries lend support to the idea that comparative grammar is useful REW 3 DÉRomVariation within Proto-Romance carpĭnus /'karp ɪ n ‑ u/(1.) */'karp ɪ n ‑ u/ fem. (2.1.) */'karp ɪ n ‑ u/ masc. (2.2.) */'karp ɪ n ‑ a/ fem. facĕre */' ɸ ak ‑ e ‑ /(1.) */' ɸ ak ‑ 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 */'p ɔ nt ‑ e/ (1.) masc. (2.) fem. (regularized) (3.) masc. (restaured)

15 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

16 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

17 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…