spanish and italian

hombre que tiene hambre del sur   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 08:38 GMT
Lol for me Scottish English and American English are not interintelligible.
Xatufan   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 16:21 GMT
Yes, I don't understand Brazilian Portuguese either. They speak like they're singing samba, LOL.

Hey, what you said means also that for Portuguese and Brazilian is easier to learn Spanish than viceversa. Or at least to pronounce Spanish.

But the good thing about Spanish is that any speaker can understand another, even if they're from different countries. Argentinans can understand Spaniards, who can understand Mexicans and Colombians.
Xatufan   Thursday, February 03, 2005, 23:30 GMT
Now a game.

LA PARTE POR EL TODO! The new game in Antimoon!

Guess what we are talking about and you'll win a wonderful prize!

OK, today we've got six names: Raquel, Mónica, Febe, José, Candelario, Roxano.

What are they? Maybe a TV s***? Ok, no digo más, no digo más!
Romance   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 19:46 GMT
How come --

felis catus (latin) > gatto (italian) - chat (french) - cat, gat (occitan) - gat (catalan) - gato (spanish, galician, portuguese)
caballinus (la) > cavallo (it) - cheval (fr) - caval (oc) - cavall (ca) - caballo (sp) - cabalo (ga) - cavalo (po)
lupus (la) > lupo (it) - loup (fr) - lop (oc) - llop (ca) - lobo (sp, ga, po)

But,
canis (la) > cane (it) - chien (fr) - can (oc) - can (ga) - cão, cachorro (po) || gós (oc alt.) - gos (ca) - perro (sp)

Where do the words gós, gos and perro come from?
Tiffany   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 21:19 GMT
I can't answer your question, but perhaps we should tell people the meanings of those words.

felis catus - cat
caballinus - horse
lupus - wolf
canis - dog

Perhaps gós, gos and perro are adapted from another language that influenced Occitan, Catalan and Spanish?
Tiffany   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 21:20 GMT
Actually perro sonds nothing like gos or gós, so perhaps two languages?
Someone   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 21:29 GMT
I think "perro" came from Basque.
Thomas   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 21:56 GMT
Etymology of perro:
onomatopeya del sonido que hace este animal al gruñir. Los pastores hacian ese sonido para incitar a sus perros.
Tiffany   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 22:02 GMT
In English:
It's an onomatopoeia of the sound that the animal makes when it growls. The shepards used this sound to incite the dogs.

I'm not sure how true this is. Where did you find this Thomas? I say "perro" and it seems nothing like a growl to me.
Jordi   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 22:07 GMT
It does if you roll heavily your "rr" as is the case in Spanish: "perr...perr...perr". The "o" and "a" is only the masculine and feminine (dog/bitch) of the growl.
Tiffany   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 22:21 GMT
I know how to pronounce "perro"! I spoke Spanish before Italian! ;) But you're right about heavily rolling the rr's sounds like growling. But what about the rest of the word. When I growl I don't make a "p" sound.
Jordi   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 22:31 GMT
Tiffany:
You don't have to but you'd have to make a human occlusive sound (putting your mouth together to produce a consonant). It could be "brrr! brrr" although the "b" can become so oclusive that it ends up becoming a "p":"prrr" "prrr". Just put your lips tightly together as if you were really angry! From "orrr!" you need a vowel to make a proper word. "perr" and then you need a gender in Romance languages "perro/perra".
I hope this convinces you.
Miquel   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 22:47 GMT

Romance: in catalan, dog is "gos", but also "ca" (latin "canis"). We have two nouns for dog.
Easterner   Sunday, February 06, 2005, 23:36 GMT
I suppose "gos" and "gós" might be of Celtic origin. At any rate, in modern Welsh, "dog" is "gi", so there might have been a /k/ -> /g/ shift in some Celtic languages including Gaulish, and the form "gos" could even be a cognate of Latin "canis" after all. Of course this is just a guess, I have no scientific evidence to back it up.
Tiffany   Monday, February 07, 2005, 01:38 GMT
Nice educated guess then, Easterner. And I'm convinced Jordi :)