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Re: booze words

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Thursday, May 8, 2008, 22:20
Hi!

There's no much yet in my conlangs, I'm afraid:

Þrjótrunn:

    vín      < vinum                             'wine'
    mjöður   < {germ.} *meduz                    'mead'
    bjur     < *bjura < {westgerm.} *beura(m)    'beer'
    ölur     < {germ.} *aluz                     'ale'

    Compare the two Germanic loans to Icelandic, which have the same
    origin there:

       mjöðür      'mead'       exactly the same sound shifts
       bjór        'beer'       slightly different sound shifts
       öl          'ale'        same shifts, only different decl. ending

    As can be seen, even with the same set of sound shifts, history is
    slightly different when Iceland is populated by Romans... :-)

    Honestly, I liked it when my sound shifter produced a slightly
    different result for 'beer' (þrj. 'bjur' vs. isl. 'bjór'), because
    so much about the sound shifts is unclear and so many words
    obviously derive from different dialects, so there is no single,
    fixed, coherent set of sound shift rules that can explain all
    Icelandic words.  Further, 'mjöður' is a loan from Westgermanic in
    Icelandic, too, so you probably only need a slightly different
    group of people hearing the foreign word to make it slightly
    different.  This is why I did not try to 'fix' my sound shifter.

Terkunan:
    kervis   < cervisia/cervesia    'beer'
    vin      < vinum                'wine'

**Henrik

Reply

Tristan McLeay <conlang@...>