Re: [tied] Re: Gimbutas.

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 3020
Date: 2000-08-08

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Marc Verhaegen
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Gimbutas.
 
Marc,
 
I've got a surprise for you. Old English cognates of touwen did exist. Better still -- they exists in Modern English.
OE tawian 'make ready, prepare, fashion' was a Class II weak verb, as if from *taw-o:-j-an-. It isn't the class that I was looking for (which is why I didn't identify it at once), but it has the same meaning as its OHG and Gothic cognates. Formally it seems to correspond to OHG zawEn, but I'll have to verify the meaning of the last word (to make sure that zawEn and zouwen are related). Tawian developed into Modern English taw -- a technical term meaning 'convert (skin) into white leather by treatment with mineral salts, as with alum and salt (as opposed to ordinary tanning)'. There is also an archaic or regional (esp. Scots) verb tew, 'prepare by beating; scourge, vex'. It looks as if it could derive from *taujan- but I think it's more likely just a dialectal by-form of tawian, perhaps blended with another verb. I can't tell for sure before I get to a library and check the historically attested forms in respectable reference books, which may be a few days. You can expect a fuller report soon.
 
Piotr