Critare e i suoi continuatori romanzi

This essay is entirely given to the spoken latin *critare and to its developments. Many Romance forms (as it. gridare, fr. crier, ancient cat. and cast. cridar, mod. cast. and port. gritar) come from *critare. Anyway, it is not so easy to say how this verb took shape. According to an ancient tradition, it should be based upon the latin quiritare ‘to call for help’; but many scholars agree on the difficulties posed by such a base. The first part of this essay, deals with the base quiritare, trying to figure out all pros and cons of that solution. In the second part, the minor hypothesis that the verb *critare arose out of the sound symbol kri- is rethought.