On 2007-10-17 22:58, Rick McCallister wrote:
> If so, how do we explain the -n-?
It was there from the beginning in Gmc. *ansu- (or *ansa-? -- see the
link given by Brian). In North Germanic and in the ancestor of Old
English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon a postvocalic nasal was lost before
/s/ (in OE/OFris./OSax. also before any other voiceless fricative),
leaving a lengthened nasalised vowel. Nasalised *[a:~] changed into ON
[a:] and Anglo-Frisian (occasionally also OSax.) [o:], This is why
English has <goose> (OE go:s) and Danish has <gås> (ON gás), while
German has <Gans>.
Piotr