But all Germanic forms of "tooth" go back
to the same PGmc. form *tanT! The Dutch version is closest to the original. OHG
had zand which has become zahn in Modern German ("ah" cannot continue Germanic
*o: < PIE *o:) In English, we have pre-fricative nasal deletion with
compensatory lengthening *tanT > *ta~:T > OE to:T. Old Norse had tann <
*tanT by regular assimilation (so still in West Scandinavian). The
Danish/Swedish -d is of later origin, as in mand, and should NOT be directly
compared with Dutch tand.
BTW, the zero grade *dnt- probably survives
in tusk < tu:sc < *tu:T-sk- < *tunT-ska-z
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 10:36
AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Ingvar and
Ivar
Yes, as I thought. Someone ought to do a systematic
exposé of of
this. Actually I thought up something around "tooth".
Something like:
Nom. do:n
Acc.
dent-
Gen. dnt-
I know this is horrible and with all
kinds of details wrong. But look:
German
Zahn-
Du., Sca. tand-
English
tooth