Re: Oven [was: Germanic consonants]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
> The 'oven' word has the following Germanic forms (all of them strong
> masculines):
>
> Goth. aúhns
>
> OHG ofan, OE ofen, OFris. oven
>
> OIc./ONorw. ofn, ogn, omn, OSw. ofn, ughn, ogn, omn, ODa. ovn, ogn
>
> Hence:
>
> EGmc. *uxna-
> WGmc. *ufna-
> NGmc. *ufna- ~ *uGna-
>
> The consonant variation can be interpreted as reflecting a *kW that
> sporadically lost its velar component and became pre-Gmc. *p in a word
> containing another labial segment (as in *wl.kWos > *wulkWa- > *wulpa-
> *wulfa- or *penkWe > *pempe > *fimf-). The Scandinavian variants with
> /g/ are taken to be Vernerian. The most likely source of a "Vernerised"
> variant of a thematic noun is the old collective with shifted accent.
> Schaffner reconstructs the following pre-Germanic forms:
>
> *h2wékWnos ~ *h2wépnos, coll. *h2ukWnáh2
>
> After GL1 and VL:
>
> *wéxWnaz ~ *wéfnaz, coll. *uGWnó:
>
> and -- with the generalisation of the weak vocalism of the collective
> (for which there are parallel examples) and the retention of the
> consonant variation -- a whole constellation of variants coexisting in
> late PGmc.:
>
> *úxnaz ~ *úfnaz ~ *úGnaz
>
> The regular development of *uGWnó: would have been to *ugWnó: > *uwno:
> (presumably ending up as **u:no:), but if the singular was affected by
> the Vernerian variant without changing its own accent pattern, the *GW
> might have remained, losing its labialisation. But secondary variation
> of *w ~ *G is also possible in Germanic in similar contexts, cf.
> *negun-/*nigun- '9' as variants of older *newun-.
>

A more likely scenario (I think) is this:
After the liberation wars against Denmark there was a tendency
in Sweden towards choosing 'real Swedish' forms over the Danish ones
(shibboletization etc). Danish /w/ in in inlaut and auslaut, however,
presents a problem, since it might be from either original /v/
(ie /w/) or original /G/ <- /g/. In this case, the Swedes made
the wrongful assumption that the original, hence original Swedish
consonant was /g/. Cf. Danish sky [skü?] from French jus [z^ü].


Torsten