--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <tgpedersen@...>
> To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 2:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [tied] Fw: Sorok i devianosto
>
>
>
> > 'Ordbog over det danske sprog' says < Lat. serica "silk"
>
> Very doubtful, both formally (the Norse comparative evidence points
to *sark-i-) and semantically. What was in all likelihood a garbled
version of the Graeco-Latin word had diffused early into Germanic and
Slavic and is represented as ON silki (n.) (cf. OE si(o)loc <
*siluk). A Germanic "sark" was just any kind of (under)shirt, also a
linen one, and if the example of <berserkr> "bear-sark" is anything
to go by, a garment made of skins would count too. I'll check other
sources soon.
>
> Piotr
I assume you deduce the -i- from the a/e alternation in the attested
forms. However:
I vaguely recall a rule /e/ > ON /a/ > Da /e/. But I forgot what the
conditioning context was, before /r/ (ON, ODa jarn, Da jern) or
after /j/ (ON ek > ODa, Sw jag > Da jeg).
Torsten