Re: Island
| From: | Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, May 14, 2000, 10:08 |
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> X-Accept-Language: en,pdf
> Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 05:37:04 -0400
> From: Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
> Dan Sulani wrote:
> > (BTW, what was the Proto-IE for "island"?)
> As far as I know, it's unknown. Each of the different branches has gone
> a different direction.
The early Germanic word was *auia, however. Cf. the name Scandinavia
(which was originally Scadinauia when it was first brought into Latin,
from *skadin- and *auia --- "the island of Skåne". (Skåne is now the
name of the southernmost province of Sweden --- it's not an island,
but it may have seemed that way because of dense forests cutting it
off from the lands to the north)).
*auia regularly developed into ø in modern NE Germ. (/2:?/ in Danish),
øy in NW Germanic (Norwegian), í in Old English.
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)