Re: Scots.

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 18:41, ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> 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
Yes, this is where English and (High) German independently (I believe)
turned *u: into /aU/ (or whatever).

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

And dictionary.com confirms it:

[Origin: bef. 900; ME toun, tun, OE tūn walled or fenced place,
courtyard, farmstead, village; c. ON tūn homefield, G Zaun fence, OIr
dún fort]
(original source: Random House Unabridged)

O.E. tun "enclosure, enclosed land with buildings," later "village,"
from P.Gmc. *tunaz, *tunan (cf. O.S., O.N., O.Fris. tun "fence,
hedge," M.Du. tuun "fence," Du. tuin "garden," O.H.G. zun, Ger. Zaun
"fence, hedge"), an early borrowing from Celtic *dunom (cf. O.Ir. dun,
Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp;" see down (n.2)). Meaning
"inhabited place larger than a village" (1154) arose after the Norman
conquest, to correspond to Fr. ville. The modern word is partially a
generic term, applicable to cities of great size as well as places
intermediate between a city and a village; such use is unusual, the
only parallel is perhaps L. oppidium, which occasionally was applied
to Rome or Athens (each of which was more properly an urbs).
(original source: Online Etymology Dictionary)

> Baum :: boom :: beam ?  (*o: ??), and Engl. borrowed boom (nautical term)
RHUD says: [Origin: bef. 900; ME beem, OE béam tree, post, ray of
light; c. OFris bām, OS bōm, D boom, OHG boum (G Baum), Goth bagms, ON
bathmr tree; the identity of the consonant which has assimilated
itself to the following m is unclear, as is the original root; perh.
Gmc *bagmaz < *bargmaz < IE *bhorǵh-mos growth; see barrow2]
and OnEtD: O.E. beam originally "living tree," but by 1000 also "post,
ship's timber," from W.Gmc. *baumoz (cf. O.Fris. bam, Du. boom, Ger.
Baum "tree"), perhaps from PIE verb root *bu- "to grow." Meaning of
"ray of light" developed in O.E., probably because it was used by Bede
to render L. columna lucis, Biblical "pillar of fire."

> Straum :: stroom :: stream
Never heard of "Straum" in German. There is "Strom", though, which
refers to a large river or to a current (water or electricity - it is,
in fact, the common word for electricity).

RHUD: [Origin: bef. 900; (n.) ME streem, OE stréam; c. G Strom, ON
straumr; akin to Gk rheǐn to flow (see rheum); (v.) ME streamen,
deriv. of the n.]
OnEtD: O.E. stream "a course of water," from P.Gmc. *straumaz (cf.
O.S. strom, O.N. straumr, Dan. strøm, Swed. ström, Norw. straum,
O.Fris. stram, Du. stroom, O.H.G. stroum, Ger. Strom "current,
river"), from PIE base *sreu- "flow" (see rheum).

> Traum :: droom :: dream
RHUD: [Origin: 1200–50; ME dreem, OE dréam joy, mirth, gladness, c. OS
drōm mirth, dream, ON draumr, OHG troum dream; modern sense first
recorded in ME but presumably also current in OE, as in OS]
OnEtD: c.1250 in the sense "sequence of sensations passing through a
sleeping person's mind," probably related to O.N. draumr, Dan. drøm,
Swed. drom, O.S. drom, Du. droom, O.H.G. troum, Ger. traum "dream,"
perhaps from W.Gmc. *draugmas "deception, illusion, phantasm" (cf.
O.S. bidriogan, O.H.G. triogan, Ger. trügen "to deceive, delude," O.N.
draugr "ghost, apparition"). Possible cognates outside Gmc. are Skt.
druh- "seek to harm, injure," Avestan druz- "lie, deceive." But O.E.
dream meant only "joy, mirth," also "music." Words for "sleeping
vision" in O.E. were mæting and swefn (from PIE *swep-no-, cf. Gk.
hypnos). Much study has failed to prove that O.E. dream "noisy
merriment" is the root of the modern word for "sleeping vision,"
despite being identical in spelling. Either the meaning of the word
changed dramatically or "vision" was an unrecorded secondary O.E.
meaning of dream, or there are two separate words here. "It seems as
if the presence of dream 'joy, mirth, music,' had caused dream 'dream'
to be avoided, at least in literature, and swefn, lit. 'sleep,' to be
substituted" [OED].

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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