Latin crassus, grossus, classis
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Brent Vine
Abstract
According to Christol (1996: 809ff.), some Latin words in -ss- (allegedly with “expressive gemination”) could receive a principled explanation as systematic exceptions to rhotacism. At the time of rhotacism, conservative dialects might have remained at the stage with intervocalic /-z-/ (as in Oscan). Then, speakers in rhotacizing dialects (or using a rhotacizing phonostyle) would identify the intervocalic [z] with [ss], at that time the only intervocalic sibilant in rhotacizing speech; cf. Lat. 〈ss〉 rendering Gk. 〈ζ〉 (= [z]). Christol’s own examples are not strongly supportive; but Lat. crassus ‘thick, fat’, grossus ‘unripe fig’ (perhaps also grossus ‘thick, coarse’), and classis ‘levy’ could provide good examples of the process. The etymologically obscure crassus and grossus can thus be given satisfying accounts based on attested PIE s-stems, s-presents, and/or s-enlarged forms. (The discussion of crassus includes analysis of the neglected form crassundia ‘sausages’, which may support an old s-present.) For classis: the root etymology was clear (cf. Lat. calāre ‘call, summon’, U. kařetu/carsitu ‘he shall call’, Gk. καλέω ‘call’, etc.), but the -ss-formation was not; it can now be interpreted, given Christol’s theory, via s-forms attested within Latin (e. g. Calābra) and elsewhere (cf. the s-present in Hitt. kalliš-zi ‘call, summon’).
© 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- On the origin of Latin suffixes in -d- and -es, -itis
- Zu lykisch ϑϑẽ und seiner etymologischen Interpretation
- Latin crassus, grossus, classis
- Hittite heterographic writings and their interpretation
- Phrygian mekas and the recently discovered New Phrygian inscription from Nacoleia
- The problem of the -a ending in the Hittite dative/locative
- On syncope of u-vocalism in Sabellic
- The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis
- Beiträge zur Tagung. The Sound of Indo-European 3, Opava 2014
- Laryngeal aspiration and the weakening of dentals in Classical Armenian
- In defense of Narten roots
- Vowel weakening in the Sabellic languages as language contact
- Beiträge zum Workshop. Indo-European from within, Göttingen 2016
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- Zu einigen Perfektbildungen im Sabellischen
- Pronominierte Nominalformen im Altlitauischen
- The development of the Tocharian causative system – top-down or bottom-up?
- A partial tree of Central Iranian
- Induktive versus abduktive Rekonstruktion
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Repetition Analysis Function (ReAF) II
- Studies in Armenian historical phonology (II)
- Hittite kapart-/kapirt - ‘small rodent’ and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- ‘mouse, jerboa’
- Hittite yaya(i)-i
- Some transitive motion verbs and related lexemes in Late Luwian
- On the origin of Latin suffixes in -d- and -es, -itis
- Zu lykisch ϑϑẽ und seiner etymologischen Interpretation
- Latin crassus, grossus, classis
- Hittite heterographic writings and their interpretation
- Phrygian mekas and the recently discovered New Phrygian inscription from Nacoleia
- The problem of the -a ending in the Hittite dative/locative
- On syncope of u-vocalism in Sabellic
- The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis
- Beiträge zur Tagung. The Sound of Indo-European 3, Opava 2014
- Laryngeal aspiration and the weakening of dentals in Classical Armenian
- In defense of Narten roots
- Vowel weakening in the Sabellic languages as language contact
- Beiträge zum Workshop. Indo-European from within, Göttingen 2016
- Indo-European from within
- Zu einigen Perfektbildungen im Sabellischen
- Pronominierte Nominalformen im Altlitauischen
- The development of the Tocharian causative system – top-down or bottom-up?
- A partial tree of Central Iranian
- Induktive versus abduktive Rekonstruktion
