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Re: OT: Gruess (was Comma gets a cure -- in German?)

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Sunday, July 20, 2008, 13:04
Quoting "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...>:

> On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:52:32 +0200, Benct Philip Jonsson wrote: > ... > >I know about modern High German monophthongization, but > >aren't there instances of Allemannic diphthongization too. > > The only one I'd know of is "Liecht" 'light', which has diphthongized from > original "lîht" (shortened in modern standard German to "Licht"). > > >BTW too bad _uo_ didn't stick as a spelling for /u:/ the > >same way _ie_ did for /i:/ -- probably because _uo_ was > >written as an _u_ with a ring above rather than as two > >letters in linear sequence. Also _o_ with a small _v_ > >above occurred! > > Old people still use to write a line or something like a brevis above each > small letter U, a reflex of that original ring above. However, it is written > on any U, so it has been reanalyzed as a mere graphical distinction from > small letter N. It was especially common in the handwriting forms of > Blackletter that were used until mid 20th century.
First time I came across that it confused me a lot because I took them to be umlauts. -- Andreas Johansson