--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "C. Darwin Goranson"
<cdog_squirrel@...> wrote:
>
> Is there a connection between the German "fragen" (meaning "to ask")
> and the root verb in Greek for the 1st person present "phráze" ("to
> tell", I think)?
>
********
No. And why should there be, since the meanings are opposites?
From Watkins:
fragen <-- prek-
To ask, entreat. Oldest form *pre-, becoming *prek- in centum
languages.1. Basic form *prek-. pray, prayer1, precarious; deprecate,
imprecate, prie-dieu, from *prex, prayer (attested only in the plural
precs), with Latin denominative precr, to entreat, pray. 2. Suffixed
zero-grade form *pk-sk- becoming *pork-sk-, contracted to *posk- in
suffixed form *posk-to-, contracted to *posto-. postulate;
expostulate, from Latin postulre, to ask, request. (Pokorny 4. per- 821.)
'phrazein" <-- gwhren-
To think. 1. frantic, frenetic, frenzy, phrenia, phreno-; phrenitis,
from Greek phrn, the mind, also heart, midriff, diaphragm. 2. Extended
zero-grade root form *gwhr-d-. phrase; holophrastic, metaphrase,
paraphrase, periphrasis, from Greek phrazein, to point out, show.
(Pokorny ghren- 496.)
Dan