Re: OE *docga 'Fido'?

From: tgpedersen
Message: 16477
Date: 2002-10-21

--- In cybalist@..., Piotr Gasiorowski <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
wrote:
>
>
>
> > But is that related to the suffix in 'pig' and 'dog'? And what is
the relation to the Celtic *succos?
>
> No, OE -a in <frocga> etc. is the weak masculine ending (PGmc. *-
o:n-, like Latin -o: in homo: = OE guma; the plural is <frocgan>). It
corresponds to Goth. -a, OHG -o, and ON -i. Swedish -a in <sugga> is
historically the strong feminine ending (= PIE *-ah2), I think,
corresponding to OE -u in <sugu>.

But those weak masculines might have been reclassified into the PIE
gender system, if they were loaned. Cf nauta, agricola etc.


Celtic *succos seems to be much the same thing as Germanic *suko:,
except for the gender and the geminate (either expressive or derived
from an original cluster).

And except for Grimm, of course.

>
> > BTW strange that *su- "one's own; in-laws(?)" are related to
swine in IE, as if the pig was part of the family. Even stranger that
something similar occurs in Austronesian ("pet pig").
>
> "Babe: Pig in the City"? All right, I'm not convinced at all that
*su:s/*su- 'pig' and *swe- are related. There's _perhaps_ a
connection between the 'pig' terms and *suHnus 'son' via *seuH- 'bear
offspring', but even that is only a conjecture.
>
> Piotr

And I'm not convinced that you'd call your son or in-laws pigs
without a very good reason (and "both having to do with procreation"
is not one of them), so there you go. Score: 1 - 1. As for your pig
babe evidence, I believe it's post-PIE?

I'd even consider *su- "good" to be part of the conspiracy.
On a good day I'd even try to jam *sH2w-l:n- "sun" into the box
(since sun is nice, or something equally vague).

Torsten

Danish quote of the day:
Fransk er et let sprog: Man kalder sin fader en pære, sin moder en
mær og sin søn en fis.