Re: The w-/n-/m- alternation

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 3:54:43 PM on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, tgpedersen
> wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> > <BMScott@> wrote:
>
> >> At 1:53:45 PM on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, tgpedersen
> >> wrote:
>
> >> [...]
>
> >>> Now of course *vo:- > o:- is regular in ON. But note the
> >>> was-/ooze pair; the rule wo:- > o:- doesn't respect the
> >>> borders it should here.
>
> >> The noun <ooze> is from OE <wo:s>; spellings showing the
> >> assimilation of /w/ to the vowel only appear in the
> >> 1500s.
>
> [...]
>
> > So 'woos' occurs in Danish too, which it shouldn't.
>
> Danish is exactly where its appearance *isn't* particularly
> surprising, considering the MLG form.

Danish hasn't loaned more Low German words than the other Scandinavian
languages. You must have misunderstood something there.
Now if you had suggested instead that the forms were Jysk (cf. Vojens,
Vonsild vs. Odense on Fyn) you might have had something, but I have no
data as to the geographical distribution of woos vs. oos.

> [...]
>
> > de Vries:
> > ostr m. 'käse' (< urn. *yustaR),
> > nisl, fär, ostur, nnorw. schw. da. ost. ? >
> > ne. dial oast 'quark' (Bjorkman 180); >
> > shetl. ost-milk 'gemischte susse und saure milch'
> > (Jakobsen 595); > finn. juusto, estn. ju:st 'käse'
> > (Thomsen 2, 179; Karsten GFL 118); > lpN. vuossta S.
> > vuosta (< akk. sg. *osta, s. Collinder APhS 3, 1928, 217).
> > ?
> > lat. ju:s 'saft, suppe',
> > ai. yu:s, asl. jucha, apr. juse 'suppe',
> > lit. jús^e 'schlechte suppe', gr. zúme: 'Sauerteig',
> > zu ai. yá:uti, yuváti 'vermischt',
> > lit. jaunù, jau~ti 'heisses wasser darüber giessen',
> > lett. jàut 'teig einrühren', air. ith 'brei, brühe', ?
> > vgl. ystast.
>
> > Note the Saami forms.
>
> Why? I've seen prothesis before. (And heard. I
> particularly like ['jEks 'wOvEr 'w&i] 'x over y'.)

Of course. That's yet another explanation why they might be related.


Torsten