Re: [tied] Re: Day and dies, deus and theos

----- Original Message -----

From: Håkan Lindgren

To: Cybalist

Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 10:35 PM

Subject: [tied] Re: Day and dies, deus and theos

> I thought that was strained too, but then I thought "if it sez so in the OED..." On the other hand, isn't the idea of a "stolen d" a little strained as well? Are there other examples of this?

 

Maybe eastern *ak^ru (Indo-Iranian, Tocharian) : western *dak^ru (archaic Latin dacruma, English tear), but here the *d is not aspirated. Perhaps what happened here was the reverse "recomposition" -- *d stolen by the preceding word: *to(d) dak^ru > *tod ak^ru. The process (known as "metanalysis") can be illustrated with examples from numerous languages, including English (check them up in the OED!):

 

a nap(e)ron > an apron

a nadder > an adder

a no(u)mpere > an umpire

an ewt (OE efete) > a newt

an ek(e)name > a nickname

mine uncle > (my) nuncle (cf. King Lear)

that other > (arch./dial.) the tother

OE for thae:m a:nes 'for the occasion, on the spur of the moment' > ME for then ones > for the nones > for the nonce

 

> So (Eng.) tug is related to (Lat.) duco! I could never have guessed that - in my head these words are connected to very different associations, duco is associated with a dux, a proud and despotic officer sitting on his horse. This is the kind of connections that makes etymology exciting to me.

Well, German Herzog "duke" < *xarja-tugo:n 'army leader'. Old English still had the strong verb te:on (1/3 pret. te:ah, pl. tugon, pp. togen) 'draw, lead' (= German ziehen, Gothic tiuhan, etc.). The vowel alternation (OE e:o/e:a/u~o) reflects PIE ablaut (*eu/*ou/*u). PIE *duk- became *tux- by Grimm's Law, but in forms with original non-initial stress *x changed to *g (Verner's Law), hence words like "tug". Gothic tiuhan shows Germanic *tiux- < *deuk- with stress on the root (Verner's Law doesn't apply).

 

Piotr