Re: [tied] Ger. "Sollen" VS Engl. "Shall"

----- Original Message -----
From: "ghozzis" <ghozzis@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 1:47 PM
Subject: [tied] Ger. "Sollen" VS Engl. "Shall"


> Hello,
> "Sollen" means "Shall" and they both are etymogically from the same
> origin. But how is it that sh ----> s from english to german, I have
> never heard of this transformation.
> "Sollen" also gave "die Schuld" (the debt) in German, here we find
> the "sch" we were waiting for!
> Anybody would have an explanation?
> Thanx

It should be *schollen by regular development; <scolan> is indeed attested
in OHG alonside <solan> (also <scal> ~ <sol>, <scolta> ~ <solta>). It seems
to be a case of irregular onset simplification peculiar to German and Dutch
(<zullen>, <zal>, <zoude>), implemented at a time when <sch-> was a real
cluster (/sx-/) and the voicing of initial /s-/ was still an active process.
Scots <sall> for <shall> is a similar but independent phenomenon.

Piotr