katá ~ cada

p. 3. B, 1: The explanation of the sociolinguistic and historical situation behind Sp. cada uno and OFr. che(d)un ‘each’ from Gk. katá is not correct.  Gk. katá in its distributive sense was borrowed into Latin in the 3^rd /4^th century and appears in the Vulgate (cata mane mane ‘every morning’, Ez. 46.14) and in the Peregrinatio Egeriae (semper cata pascha ‘every Easter’).  It is not particularly associated with Southern France—the idiom is also found in Portuguese, Logudorese, and various forms of Italian—so connection with the Greek of Massilia is unlikely.  There are, however, better examples, which make the same point, i.e that linguistic evidence confirms the presence of Greek speakers in Southern France in Antiquity: For example, Occ. caliourno ‘mooring line’ from Gk. kálōs ‘rope’ and empurar ‘to fan a flame’ from Gk pỹr ‘fire’.  Fr. dôme ‘dome’ borrowed from OOcc. *doma ‘cupola’  (inferred from modern domo) is from Gk. dôma ‘house’, which survives nowhere else in Romance. See Wartburg 1969:18–21 and for dôme Paris 1895.

Paris, G. 1894. “Fr. dôme.” Romania 24:274–6.

Wartburg, Walter von. 1969. Évolution et structure de la langue française. 9^th ed. Bern: Francke.

Shane Hawkins, Studies in the Language of Hipponax

A plug for Shane Hawkins, Studies in the Language of Hipponax.