----- Original Message -----
From: "David Barrow" <davidab@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: "Wife" (was: Homosexuality etc.)
> Joe wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Isaac Penzev" <isaacp@...>
> > To: <CONLANG@...>
> > Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 12:55 PM
> > Subject: Re: "Wife" (was: Homosexuality etc.)
> >
> > > Andreas Johansson wråt:
> > >
> > >
> > > > This appear to be common for words refering to women; another case
is
> > _fru_
> > > > which used to mean "lady" (=wife of a high-ranking nobleman - not
just
> > any
> > > > woman of noble blood), but now is "wife". German _Frau_, of course,
> > means
> > > > simply "woman". The feminists probably has something to say about
this
> > ...
> > >
> > > Does somebody know the Proto-Germanic and/or Old Englisc form of the
word
> > _Frau_
> > > (pls specify vowel length, gender and type of stem)?
> >
> > The PG would have been "frú", I think. I think it was lost in OE, but
it
> > would have been feminine, and, while I'm not sure, I would have expected
it
> > to be a u-stem.
> >
>
> from
> A concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
> J.R. Clark Hall
>
> OE frówe . f. woman
>
> long o if it doesn't come through clearly.
>
Okay. My dictionary seems to be lacking that. Probably not "frú", then.
> David Barrow
>