--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:
>
> Just thought that maybe a cybalist member might have the answer to
a question that has always dogged me: What are the origins of Gothic
<du> "to" and <dis-> "apart" (as in <distairan>)? They really look
like West Germanic *to:/ta and *tuz- (German <zer->) but with <d>
substituted for <t> for some reason (lack of stress?). Or are they
from IE words with *dh-?
The simplest (and probably wrong) explanation that always came to me
is that dis- is borrowed from Latin (cf. inherited tuz- in
tuz-werjan "to doubt") and du, du- is due to an influence of Slavic
_do_ "to", "till". I'd be happy to get corrected.
Ualarauans