cuius (was: Etruscans (was: minimal pairs))

[Max Wheeler]

Latin cuius (relative Adj) is classical (Plautus, Cato, Cicero, Gellius,
Apuleius are cited in OLD). Spanish <cuyo/-a> is usually said to be
inherited (as are the corresponding Ptg and Logudorese forms). Latin Cuius
('whose?' interrogative Adj) was also classical, and Spanish ¿Cúyo? was
used until the 17th century, but subsequently has fallen out of use in
standard Spanish.

No reason to think that Spanish cuyo is a 'newly minted reanalysis'
(reanalysis of what, since 'indeclinable' *cuyo does not survive?). And NB
the <y> of tuyo 'yours' and suyo 'hers/his/theirs' is plausibly said to
come from analogy with cuyo.

Max

--On Saturday, February 10, 2001 18:19 -0500 Steve Gustafson
<stevegus at aye.net> wrote:

> Rick McCallister wrote:

>> Isn't cuius cognate to English <whose>?

> I'm pretty sure it is.

> FWIW, the declined -cuius- may have survived in Romance, assuming it is
> the original of Spanish cuyo/cuya, again meaning "whose."   AFAIK, in
> strictly Classical Latin it appears only as an indeclinable genitive.  It
> is hard to say whether the Spanish is a survival or a newly minted
> re-analysis.
____________________________________________________________
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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