Re: [tied] mother: *xanos, *xana, *hana, or *ana?

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 6179
Date: 2001-02-19

True. And I forgot to mention that the Gothic word for "mother" is aiTi: (weak feminine, cf. OHG eidî, also Finnish äiti -- an early Germanic loan), not *mo:dar as one might expect. The latter doesn't occur even once in the Gothic Bible fragments, though Wulfila does use "fadar" just once beside his usual "atta".
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 1:50 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] mother: *xanos, *xana, *hana, or *ana?

... in present day Polish, <ojciec> is felt to be too "formal", and <tata> is preferred, even when speaking to people outside the family. For "mother", the recycling has gone even faster (unlike what happened in the Proto-Slavic period): <mac'> (from PIE *meh2ter-) gave way to the diminutive <matka>, which is now felt to be too formal and is being replaced by the nursery word <mama>.