bearloch ( it was:Re: [tied] Re: Romanian Loans in OCS?)

From: alex
Message: 26346
Date: 2003-10-11

tolgs001 wrote:
#7 (bârlog --AM) with Hung. <barlang>;

It seems to be a germanic loan into Romanian this "bârlog". If we think
that the principal meaning of the word is " the place where the bear
sleeps", then the word looks like "loch of the bear"; after the way the
Germans constructs the words, the bearloch seems to get this "bârlog" in
Romanian, don't you find?


"Bär", English "bear", Swedish "björn", means in fact "the brown one".
The form with "e" (like in MHD and AHD ber, bero) will allow the "â" in
Rom. before "r" and after a labial like in "pârâu", thus ber > bâr.

German "Loch" belongs to family of "Locke" from PIE *leug-. The problem
one has is : from which Germans then? The Gothic reflex of PIE *leug- is
"luk" (see usluk "Öffnung"), thus the loan must be in the time as the
"g" was stil "g" in Germanic, meaning 300 BC at least.

> George

Alex