Re: Schaffner's list of Verner-alternating Gmc nouns

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

> ________________________________
> From: Torsten <tgpedersen@...>
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sat, March 6, 2010 4:53:12 AM
> Subject: [tied] Schaffner's list of Verner-alternating Gmc nouns
>
> > > You don't know 'wheel' (for example; there are many more)?
> > > There'a a whole thick book about such nouns (S. Schaffner, 2001,
> > > _Das Vernersche Gesetz und der innerparadigmatisch e grammatische
> > > Wechsel des urgermanischen im Nominalbereich_ , Innsbruck: Meid).
> >
> > I only got around to OCR'ing parts of it; here's the index:
>
> It turns out I left out two pages' worth, here is the whole index (I hope)
>
> Inhaltsverzeichnis
>
> [...]
>
> 26 Urgerm. *ux(w)na- : *ufna- : *uG(w)na- "Ofen"

Ouch, I get burnt whenever I touch this one ...

> 27 Urgerm. *wexila- : *weGila- "Rohrweihe, Fischadler"73
> see Latin aquila

More likely this is the fem. (sc. <avis> 'bird') of the adj. <aquilus> 'dark, dusky'. Many birds are dark, but the eagle was being compared to other AUGURIAL birds. Morphological comparison with <Aquilo:> 'North Wind' i.e. 'Darkener' suggests borrowing from Etruscan (pace Ernout-Meillet). Root *acv- 'to cover' vel sim., with postfix *acv-il- 'to cover over, darken', pass. adj. *acvile 'darkened, dark' (whence Lat. <aquilus> as LW), nomen actoris *acvilu 'darkener' (Lat. <Aquilo:>).

> III.2 Die neutralen a-Stämme mit grammatischem Wechsel
> 1 Urgerm. *alþra- : *alðra- "Alter, Lebensalter"
> 2 Urgerm. *anþiya- n, "Stirn" : *anðiya- m n "Ende, Rand"
> 3 Urgerm. *Basia- : *Bazia- "Beere"
> Celtic *badio, see Spanish baya, bayo

Celtic/Ligurian *bodio- 'brownish, mud-colored' vel sim., possibly in <Bodincus> 'the Po' and <Bodensee>. Through Illyrian into Latin as <badius> 'chestnut-brown' (of horses), and Sabine <basus> 'id.' This cannot be related to the Gmc. 'berry'-word, however, which requires an original */s/. I suspect the Verner alternation is due to the distinction in accent between determinative and bahuvrihi compounds, tree-names being among the latter.

DGK