----- 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.
> ~~~~~~Yitzik~~~~~~
>