Re: Identity of the 'language of geminates'

From: tgpedersen
Message: 61016
Date: 2008-10-20

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> At 5:55:21 PM on Sunday, October 19, 2008, Rick McCallister
> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > Doesn't the presence of Icelandic offer a away around your
> > MO. If a word is in Icelandic, unless it's a recent
> > loanword, wouldn't it have to come from Old Norse?
>
> Depends on what you mean by 'recent': despite the purist
> purging of the last century or so, there are still some MLG
> borrowings (e.g., <hertogi> 'duke', <smakka> 'to taste',
> <spegill> 'mirror', <orsök> 'cause, reason', the last two
> possibly via Danish). There used to be a lot more, and
> there are still more in speech than in writing.

Make that two centuries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_purism_in_Icelandic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_language


Torsten