Final Theta in Spanish

[Max Wheeler]

[ moderator edited ]

--On Friday, November 17, 2000 21:15 -0600 "David L. White"
<dlwhite at texas.net> wrote:

>> You're right, (in areas where it occurs) /-_DH_/ > /-_TH_/ only
>> occurs finally --at the end of words or syllable final before nasals (I
>> can't think of any other consonants that might follow <d>)
>
>         I meant theta from Latin /k/ before /i, e/, corresponding to
>         various affricates and sibilants in other Romance.  I was not
> aware (or had managed to forget) that in some cases (one might also note
> "paz") final vowels had been lost, pretty much destroying my developing
> argument, unless perhaps the present situation has been created by some
> sort of dialect mixture.  Why are these words so rare, evidently?  Should
> not all Latin 3rd declension nouns in /k/ show up with final theta in
> Spanish, if "lux" and "pax" do?  I cannot at the moment think of any
> more, but there must have been more than 2 ...

Indeed more than 2 (and adjectives, and other sources). here's a few,
pending a look in a reverse dictionary:

atroz
audaz
capaz
cicatriz
codorniz
contumaz
cruz
diez
eficaz
emperatriz
-ez abstract noun suffix
'-ez surname suffix
faz
feliz
feraz
feroz
fugaz
haz
hoz
luz
matriz
mordaz
nariz
paz
perdiz
perspicaz
pertinaz
pez
precoz
procaz
pugnaz
salaz
secuaz
suspicaz
tenaz
veraz
vivaz
voraz
voz

¿Basta?

Max
____________________________________________________________
Max W. Wheeler
School of Cognitive & Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Falmer
BRIGHTON BN1 9QH, G.B.

Tel: +44 (0)1273 678975 Fax: +44 (0)1273 671320 Email:
maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk
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