Re: Scots.

Taliesin wrote:
>* Benct Philip Jonsson said on 2008-07-19 16:15:08 +0200
> >
> > As it happens Icelandic preserves _s�r_ as both a
> > noun and an adjective but not the verb, while
> > Swedish has only the noun _s�r_ (the normal word
> > for 'wound') and the verb _s�ra_ 'injure, hurt'.
> > I don't know about Danish (Lars_1) or Norwegian
> > (Lars_2, Kaliessin?)
>
>� s�re = to wound, hurt
>s�r    = a wound
>s�rt   = slightly painful, tender, but I think mostly used for mental
>pain
>
>"et s�rt brudd" = a painful breakup (of a relationship)
>"et s�rt minne" = a painful/dear memory
>
>There's also (don't know if it is from the same word):
>
>s�rs = especially, can be used as "very"
>s�rlig = especially, can be used as "very"
>s�rt = strange, weird, unusual
>
The latter 3 with i/e-umlaut?

The question arises: might English/Scots have borrowed the word from the
Norsemen? Or, provided these are all in fact cognate with Germ. sehr, are
the Germ/Nor. or Germ/Eng. vowel correspondences regular or does one or the
other set suggest borrowing? Offhand I can't think of any other Germ.
/e:(r)/ :: Engl. /o(r) ~ /O(r)/ words..........oops, mehr :: more, and maybe
geh/en :: go ???

Generally I'm woefully iggurunt about Germanic vowel correspondences, but
thanks to Dutch I've figured out (or at least noticed) a few:
Haus :: huis :: house (*u:)
Laus :: luis :: louse

How about Zaun 'fence (enclosure?) :: Du. tuin 'garden' :: Engl. town ???
(this semantic range crops up in my Indonesian research and seems
reasonable....)

Baum :: boom :: beam ?  (*o: ??), and Engl. borrowed boom (nautical term)
Straum :: stroom :: stream
Traum :: droom :: dream

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