Linguistic Society of America

Old and Dialectal Spanish muncho, Portuguese muito

Author(s): Max A. Luria
Source: Language, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1937), pp. 317-318
Published by: Linguistic Society of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/409338
Accessed: 02-04-2017 05:08 UTC

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 MISCELLANEA 317

Usage and the definitions given

of 'charcoal-dust', 'cinders', o
'cinders'. It is significant to no
defines cisco in Latin as pulvis c
In view of the foregoing, ther
*ciniscus. To the stem cin-,
thus giving *clniscu > *cinisc
The figurative and familiar me
Rice offers no semasiological ex
the relationship of cisco to Lati
be employed as an emblem of '
which may be associated 'a quar
tendant uproar and hubbub'.
that Latin pulvis may convey
contest, arena, lists'.'3
The verb ciscar would natura
ciscar in Portuguese is define
gravetos e ramos a que se lanqou o
is going to be plowed, twigs and
Here we find once more the association with burnt branches or charcoal.
Portuguese and Spanish ciscar with the meaning 'to soil, to dirty'
finds an analogy in English smut 'a spot of dirt or soot', and to smut
'to blacken, to soil'. Finally ciscarse with the meaning 'to loosen or
evacuate the bowels' finds a parallel in the English euphemism 'the
child soiled itself', the obvious implication is that the child 'loosened
or evacuated its bowels'.
MAx A. LURIA

OLD AND DIALECTAL SPANISH muncho, PORTUGUESE muito

Muncho 'mucho' is found in Old Spanish, Judeo-Spanish, and in the
popular speech of Spain and Spanish America. The corresponding
form in current Portuguese is muito (pronounced my'tu'5).
Among the explanations for the presence of n in Spanish and nasaliza-
11 Op. cit.
12 Harpers' Latin Dictionary (New York, 1907).
13 Ib.
14 D. Vieira, Grande diccionario portuguez (Oporto, 1873).
16 It is to be noted that in Trds-os-Montes and Melgagao muito is not nasalized.
Cf. discussion by J. Cornu, Die portugiesische Sprache in Grundriss der
romanischen Philologie 727 (Strassburg, 1888); J. Leite de Vasconcellos, Esquisse
d'une dialectologie portugaise 110 (Paris, 1901).

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318 MISCELLANEA

tion in Portuguese, the follow

Pidal: Otras veces, sin raz6n ap
latinos; las letras sefialadas so
En la mayoria de estos casos la
que hay en el mismo vocablo
d6j montr6 ... que dans beaucou
de la syllabe nasalisent la voye
In the absence of more tangib
would appear to be reasonabl
origin of the nasalization in mu
Latin. Grandgent'8 cites the
apparently persisted in Port
popular form munto'9 (pronou
that muntu > munto must have
took place was that both much
influence of Vulgar Latin mun
muito (myltu).
MAx A. Lu
I' Manual de gramitica hist6rica es
17 Grammaire de langues romanes
18 An Introduction to Vulgar Lat
19 C. de Figueiredo, Novo diccion

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