Re: [tied] Re: Goths: IE Languages vs Germanic

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 10430
Date: 2001-10-19

The converse "approximation" was more often than not boringly straightforward, since Latin consonants generally had plausible Germanic counterparts. Latin Caesar > *kaisar-, Latin (via) stra:ta > *stra:t- (street), Latin (li:bra) pondo: > *pund- (pound), Latin caupo: > *kaup- (chapman, cheep).
 
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: lsroute66@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 6:56 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Goths: IE Languages vs Germanic

--- In cybalist@......, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@......> wrote:
<<The pronunciation was not quite the same; it was just the closest
approximation available to the Classical writers.>>

Just a thought.  Conversely, how did the very early Germanics
"approximate" Greek or Roman sounds?  Given the relative richnesses
of the cultures, one would expect a lot more words going north than
going south.  Before direct contact, those words might have traveled
through Celtic, Thracian, Scythian, Getic, Baltic, etc. speakers.  And
there may have been a great deal of "approximating" going on.  And
there may have been a good deal of folk etymologizing afterwards to
turn them back into "native words."