Re: swallow vs. nighingale

At 2:50:15 PM on Friday, October 19, 2007, Rick McCallister
wrote:

> We were looking at *ghei-, *ghel- for "swallow et
> al.", right?

> I seem to remember reading that nightingale < OE
> nightigala (sp?)

Nihtegale.

> originally meant "night yeller, i.e. caller, singer" due
> to its nocturnal songs.

'Night-singer'; the second element is from OE <galan> 'to
sing (cry, scream, yell)'.

> Is -gale, -gala related to "yell" ---if so, is it a
> question of yell < *geall (vel sim) in Saxon

WSax. <giellan>, Angl. <gellan> 'to yell, shout'.

> vs. *gala in Anglian or Old Norse?

ON has both <gala> 'to cry, scream; sing, chant' and
<gjalla> 'to scream, shriek'. <Gjalla> and <g(i)ellan> must
be from *gellan, <gala> and <galan> from *galan.

Brian