is it zin or tzin??

[Michael Mccafferty]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2000, Craig Berry wrote:

> On Tue, 8 Feb 2000, Michael Mccafferty wrote:
>
> > The two rather seem to be independent creations. Spanish -ito/a seems to
> > have a cognate form in French -et (m.) and -ette (f.) in French.
> > Just an idea.
>
> I think the idea was not one of word (well, suffix) borrowing, but rather
> one of form borrowing.  That is, the ubiquitous use of an honorific and
> diminutive suffix in Nahuatl led to former Nahuatl-speaking cultures
> making heavy use of the Spanish diminutive, occasionally as if it were an
> honorific.  It's an intriguing idea.

oh, I see. yeah, that is intriguing!

Michael


>
> --
>    |   Craig Berry - cberry at cinenet.net
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>       of Wisdom" - William Blake
>


Michael McCafferty
C.E.L.T.
307 Memorial Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
47405
mmccaffe at indiana.edu

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