WORDS OF WEATHER AND SEASONS #6

 

ENGLISH	LATIN/VULGAR L.	ITALIAN	SPANISH	ROMANIAN	PORTUGUESE	FRENCH
AUTUMN	autumnus	autunno	otono	toamna	outonno	autumne
FOG	caecia/nebula/brodicāre	nebbia	niebla	ceata	nevoa	brouillard
RAIN	pluvia	pioggia	lluvia*                     pl changes to ll	ploais	chuva	pluie
SEASON	stationem	stagione	estaciones	anotimpuri	estações, sazões	saisons
SNOW	nivem	neve	nieve	zapada	neve	neige
SPRING	primus ver	primavera	primavera	primavara	primavera	printemps
SUMMER	veranum, aestes	estate	verano	vara	verao	ete
WINTER	hibernum/invernum	inverno	invierno	iarna	inverno	hiver

 
I created this list number 6 because I was curious to see how close these five languages might be to each other in written form. One tool that I would like to apply to this similarity/divergence is the consonant pattern exhibited among the words, by comparing how the consonants of the word match (like the root consonants c and m and p of CAMPUS), if the word begins with a consonant, or comparing the root of the verb abit-, if the word begins with a vowel. I have been using this approach on the language learning apps, especially with Romanian and Portuguese. It has been very helpful.

For example, in looking at the Latin word campus, the root consonants of c-mp is strongly similar among all five language words, meaning that if I know the word in Latin or Italian, then I can guess, with a good degree of accuracy, the word in the other four languages (Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, French).

For this week’s list, I have made a list of randomly chosen words (composed of the root and its verb conjugation suffix like are in habit+are) , with the translations in English, Latin/Vulgar Latin, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, and French. As Latin is the root language for Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese and French, the list gives the verb in each of these 5 languages. The list of these five languages is based on similarity/divergence to Latin, with the assumption that Italian may be the language most similar to Latin and French may be the most divergent from Latin.

AUTUMN: The five languages of this list are fairly similar from the Latin root autumn-. The Italian word, autunno, retains most of the Latin root, while substituting a consonant n. The French word, autumne, retains the Latin root. Meanwhile, the Spanish word, otono, modifies the vowels while keeping the consonants t-n. Then the Portuguese word outonno, modifies the vowels, while keeping the consonants t-n and adding an additional consonant n. Finally, the Portuguese word toamna, drops the initial vowels, and retains the consonants t-mn.
Because of the similarity of the consonants t-n, there is a fair match of recognizing the words between languages.

FOG: The five languages of this list are widely divergent in their spelling and their word of origin from Latin, with three of the languages deriving their word from the Latin nebula with the consonants n-b-l. First, the Italian word, nebbia, with the consonants n-bb, retains the Latin n-b consonants. Then the Spanish word, niebla, with the consonants n-bl also retains the Latin consonants n-b-l. Finally, the Portuguese word nevoa, with the consonants n-v, only retains the initial n consonant. Meanwhile, the Romanian word ceata, with the consonants c-t, derives from the Latin caecia. Finally, the French word brouillard, with the consonants br-ll-rd, derives from the Latin word brodicare, with the consonants br-d-r.
Because of the divergence between two of the five languages, there is a poor match of recognizing the words between languages.

RAIN: Two of the five languages on this list, Spanish and Portuguese, demonstrate a sound change of the initial pl, in the Latin pluvia where Spanish converts the pl to a ll, making lluvia and Portuguese converts the pl, in the Latin pluvia to a ch, making chuva. The Spanish word lluvia and the Portuguese word chuva retain the middle consonant v. The Italian word pioggia, changes the Latin pl to a pi, so that the Italian word retains the consonants p-v. Then the Romanian word ploais, retains the consonant pl, but drops the consonant v. Finally, the French word pluie, retains the initial consonants pl but also drops the consonant v.
Because of the sound change in two of the five languages, as well as the dropping of the middle consonant v in 2 languages, there is a poor match of recognizing the words between languages.

SEASON: The initial Latin word, stationem, with the consonants st-t-n, is modified in two of the five languages, Italian and Spanish. The Italian word stagione, with the consonants st-g-n, modifies the middle consonant Latin vowel cluster tio to a gio, while keeping the final n consonant. The Spanish word, estaciones, adds the initial e vowel before the st consonants, and modifies the middle consonant Latin vowel cluster tio to a cio, while keeping the final n consonant. The Portuguese word estações, adds the initial e vowel before the st consonants. The french word saisons, follows the Latin nominative satio, retaining the s consonant, while adding another s consonant followed by a n consonant. Finally, the Romanian word, anotimpuri, comes from a Germanic source.
Because of the modifications to the original Latin word in four of the five languages, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French, which make the spelling divergent, there is a poor match of recognizing the words between languages.

SNOW: Three of the five languages retain the Latin consonants n-v, with the Italian word, neve having the consonants n-v, the Spanish word nieve also having the consonants n-v, and the Portuguese word neve having the n-v consonants. The French word neige, retains the initial n consonant, but modifies the Latin v consonant to a g consonant. Finally, the Romanian word zapada, comes from a Slavic source.
Because of the similarity of four of five languages, there is a fair match of recognizing the word between these languages, but creates a divergence with the Romanian word.

SPRING: Four of the five languages, Italian, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese, have a strong similarity. The Italian word primavera, with the consonants pr-m-v-r, matching the Spanish word primavera, with the consonants pr-m-v-r, the Romanian word primavera, with the consonants pr-m-v-r, and the Portuguese word primavera, with the consonants pr-m-v-r. Only the French word printemps, deviates from the previous four languages.
Because of the strong similarity between four of the five languages, there is a strong match of recognizing the word between these languages.

SUMMER: Three of the five languages, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese derive their word from the Latin veranum, with the consonants v-r-n. The Spanish word, verano, with the consonants v-r-n matches the Latin source. The Portuguese word verao, with the consonants v-r, drops the final n consonant. Then the Romanian word vara, retains only the consonant v-r. On the other hand, the Italian word estate, with the root test and the consonant t, and the french word ete, derive from the Latin aestes.
Because of the divergence of sources between all five languages, there is an overall poor match of recognizing the word between languages. However, the similarity of Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian create a good match of recognizing the word between these three languages.

WINTER: Three of the five languages, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, have a strong similarity to each other. The Italian word inverno, with the root inv- plus the consonants rn, and the Spanish word invierno, with the root inv- plus the consonants rn, and the Portuguese word inverno, with the root inv plus the consonants rn make these three words a strong match with each other. The French word hiver deviates from the pattern of the three previous languages. Finally, the Romanian iarna is strongly divergent from the previous four languages.
Because of the divergence of sources between all five languages, there is an overall poor match of recognizing the word between languages. However, However, the similarity of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese create a good match of recognizing the word between these three languages.