From: tgpedersen
Message: 55403
Date: 2008-03-17
>I see. So is 'suck' from *sug-nan or *sug-jan?
> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:05:37 -0000, "tgpedersen"
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> >--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@> wrote:
> >>
> >> At 12:34:47 PM on Monday, March 17, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:
> >>
> >> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> >> > <BMScott@> wrote:
> >>
> >> >> At 7:57:11 PM on Sunday, March 16, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:
> >>
> >> >>>>> In other words, with some words, you'll have to resort
> >> >>>>> to 'expressiveness' to explain the gemination, which is
> >> >>>>> no explanation at all.
> >>
> >> >>>> Why not? In many languages, "expressive" formnations do
> >> >>>> have their own peculiar phonology and phonotactics, and
> >> >>>> follow different historical developments.
> >>
> >> >>> What is 'expressive'? What does it express?
> >>
> >> >> Emotional coloring.
> >>
> >> > That's hardly better. Coloring by which emotion?
> >>
> >> Any, including 'This isn't something prosaic' and 'I want to
> >> give this term special emphasis'.
> >
> >Aha. So geminated verbs are colored by some emotion, and non-geminated
> >verbs are emotion-less?
>
> No. In the vast majority of cases, gemination in Germanic
> represents the effect of soundlaws (such as Kluge's law).