From: Torsten
Message: 67982
Date: 2011-08-13
>Out of boredom I hovered the mouse over the other-language versions in
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@> wrote:
> > ________________________________
> > From: dgkilday57 <dgkilday57@>
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > But before proceeding further, I should check what Du Cange has
> > > to say about <larricium>.
> >
> > Enough to posit a West Mediterranean *larr-. I am trying to see
> > whether West Germanic 'lark' can be referred to a NWB compound
> > based on this substratal word.
> >
> >
> > *****R I don't think lark can be linked to *larr because lark is
> > from something like *lawarkaz; see Old Spanish laverca from Gothic
> > or Frankish. There is a Scots word in an old song laverock which I
> > think means "lark" but it's been a while
> >
> Yes. All the attested older forms have *law- but I have seen one
> suggestion that WGmc earlier had *larwarkjo:n vel sim. with the
> first /r/ lost to dissimilation. This raises at least the
> possibility of a NWB compound *larr(a)-warkan- vel sim.
> 'meadow-defender'(??), borrowed into WGmc and reinterpreted (at
> least in some OE dialects) as 'treason-worker', hence
> folk-etymological deformation. Here the loss of the stem-vowel of
> the first element would be regular in NWB in this position (as I
> have postulated for *Der(u)-went-) and the syllable-final -rr- would
> be shortened to -r- before its dissimilative loss. But the devil is
> in the details, and unless I can come up with a phonologically
> concrete scenario, this connection must be regarded as highly
> speculative.
>
> The Old Spanish form is probably from Frankish, unless the Goths
> also borrowed it from WGmc. The word does not appear to be Common
> Gmc. The only Old Norse form is in a glossary and appears to have
> been borrowed from Old English.
>
> At any rate, the etymology of <lark> is nothing but.
>