Re: English questions

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pavel Iosad" <edricson@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: English questions


> 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_
>
ahem.  [dwEorx], IIRC.

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