-ello in Italian usually means something cute - ino ( diminutive) means something small
Birbante means something as rascal ( but it is usually used for children when they steal jam - do they still do that?) -birbantello is used for a child to joke with the fact that he actually stole jam but did it in such a nice and clever way... so we are not really angry about that Donatella http://www.webalice.it/dg3011/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Posner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "lutelist" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 6:58 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: [Viols] "cello" >> 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 > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/723 - Release Date: > 15/03/2007 11.27 > >
