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Re: OT: Finns.

From:Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Thursday, February 26, 2009, 10:47
On 2009-02-25 Lars Finsen wrote:
> > BTW I suspect that [kainu] > [kQinu] > > > [kwEinu] may have been a spontaneous > > development in some dialect of ON. The [kwEin] > > > [kw&:n] change was under the influence of > > the ON word _kvæn_ 'womanfolk' (cognate to > > English _quean_). > > They didn't think the Kainulaiset looked > very manly? >
The Finns of old times were certainly less warlike than the Norsemen. It is well known that warlike cultures confuse unwarlikeness with effeminacy, alas!
> ON has no kai- word, so it's perhaps natural > that it would change. Possibly the word has > arrived to ON via Sami, that would account for > some changes.
The kai-/kuöi- correspondance is probably a regular Finnish/Saami isogloss, since it is not commented upon. I shall have to look up _kainu-_ in a Finnish etymological dictionary to pursue the matter further. /BP

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Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>