Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:23:08 -0500: Harlan Messinger
<hmessinger.removethis@xxxxxxxxxxx>: in sci.lang:

hazchem wrote:
In my Spanish class last night we were learning the words for tapas
and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. This seems to
be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words.

Not every Spanish word that starts with "al" is of Arabic origin. "Alto"
and "alma" aren't. I see that in this case, the origin is likewise
Latin, "amandala", which is supposedly a corruption of "amygdala",
though I can't imagine a direct transition from stressed [mig] to
stressed [man].

I can: a simple assimilation. gd is still a common combination in
Modern Greek, so probably was back then, but it doesn't "feel right"
in Romance languages, so people tended to mold into the patterns
familiar to them?

So [migd] became [mind] became [mend].

The dictionaries I consulted don't show any intermediate
steps. Perhaps the [g] assimilated to the [d] first, giving *amindala,
and then only the vowel needed to change.

Right.

--
Ruud Harmsen, http://rudhar.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
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  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... or any Semitic language? ... So is it ambiguous to say that a certain word means "rare" in some ...
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