> From: "Alice Renken" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> The root word here is "viola". The diminutive > ending is "ino", giving "violino", "little viola".
Meaning small viol, of course. > "ello" is an aggrandizing ending, so "violoncello" is "big viola". This is a bit backward. "Ello" is a diminutive, and a "violoncello" is a "small violone." See, e.g. http://sscm-jscm.press.uiuc.edu/jscm/v12/no1/wissick.html at 2.1 http://sscm-jscm.press.uiuc.edu/jscm/v6/no2/bonta.html at 3.7 http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/VAN_VIR/ VIOLONCELLO_Fr_violoncelle_Ger_.html BTW, a few years ago (must have been before 2000), a bass player with no early music connections proudly showed me a five-string bass he'd just acquired. I forget whether it was a new instrument, and indeed have blanked on every detail that might be of interest here. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
