At 3:53:26 AM on Sunday, September 30, 2007, fournet.arnaud
wrote:
[I had written:]
>> Early attestations of OE, ON, OSax, and OHG are far too
>> similar to be the result of some three millennia of
>> divergence; the suggestion can't be taken seriously.
[...]
> I don't think these languages are that much similar. I(ch)
> stand means present in English : past : I got up in
> German.
The modern German preterite <stand> is altogether
irrelevant: it's a 17th century innovation, and I was
talking about the early Gmc. dialects. The relevant data
for this verb are as follows:
Pret. Pret. Past
Inf. Sing. Plur. Part.
---------------------------------------
Goth. standan sto:þ sto:þum *staþans
OE standan sto:d sto:don standen
OSax standan sto:d sto:dun standan
stuond
OHG stantan stuont stuontun gistantan
(stuot)
ON standa stóð stóðu staðinn
The vowels match perfectly. All have the n-infix in the
present. In OE, OSax, and OHG it was extended to the past
part. as well, and in OHG and OSax it infiltrated the pret.
as well, though OHG <stuot> appears sporadically as late as
the 12th century. These minor differences in the extent to
which the nasal infix spread from the present to the rest of
the paradigm do almost nothing to obscure the obvious
identity of these verbs.
In short, your example doesn't support your claim.
[...]
Brian