Re: English questions
| From: | Pavel Iosad <edricson@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, May 23, 2003, 15:11 |
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Hello,
> >It's idiosyncratic as far as anyone knows. Another example,
> no longer
> >reflected in the spelling, is "dwarf". (Hey, what do you want from
> >a language that has like 8 different outcomes of final /ux/
> = "ough"?)
>
> Wow! So that's why "dwarf" in Dutch is "dwerg" (pronounced
> about /'dvErx/). I was wondering a bit about that.
Hm, easy. In OE it's _dweorh_ ["dwEorG]. The PGmc. would be *dwe2rGs or
thereabouts. That's be OHG _zwerg_, ON _dvergr_, and, for the record,
Gothic *_dvaírgs_
Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad pavel_iosad@mail.ru
Is mall a mharcaicheas am fear a bheachdaicheas
--Scottish proverb
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