On 2006-02-21 10:29, tgpedersen wrote:
> And BTW: German Milch "milk", molken "to milk" < *mulg^- as far as I
> can see.
The normal Germanic strong verb is *melk-a/i- (OHG melkan, Mod.Ger.
melken, OFris. melka, OE melcan). Of course the expected nil grade
*ml.g^- > Gmc. *mulk- is also attested in derivatives such as *mulkana-
'curdled milk, whey' (OE molcen, Ger. Molken), formally identical with
the past participle of the verb in question (cf. OE melcan, pret. mealc,
mulcon, p.p. (ge-)molcen). Secondary weak verbs from the same root also
occur, e.g. OE meolcian, ON mjolka (of course denominative, from *melka-
'milk') and ON molca 'to milk', mylkja 'suck' (with the nil grade).
Piotr