Re: THEORY: Evolution of infixes/ablaut?

Tom Wier wrote:
> What you're talking about, incidentally, has happened quite often before.
> Modern English "apron" used to be "napron";  "orange" used to be
> "norange" (cf. Spanish <naranja>, IIRC).   In both of those cases, it was
> the reverse of the one you mention:  the /n/ gravitated to the article, so that
> "a norange" becomes "an orange", etc., but qualitatively the same kind of
> process.
In the same direction is "ekename" --> "nickname"; where "eke" meant
"replacement" or something like that.

--
"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men
believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of
the city of God!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor