Yes. Both of these are morphologically
difficult. Pokorny (IEW 412) regarded OE
_gan(d)ra_ and MLG _ganre_ 'gander' as syncopated forms of a weak masculine
derived from PIE *g^Han- 'to gape', Gmc. *gan-, parallel to OHG _kat-aro_
'tomcat', NHG _Kater_. I consider it more
plausible that no syncope occurred in these 'gander' forms, which instead
reflect Verner's Law shifting *-ns- to *-nz- (WGmc *-nr-) in the middle cases
of a weak masculine noun derived from the PIE C-stem *g^Hh2ans- 'goose'.
Dialectal NHG _Ganser_
(Bavarian etc. against standard _Gänserich_ formed like _Enterich_ 'male duck')
is explained in the Grimm-DWB as continuing MHG *gan3er, equivalent to LG
_ganter_ from the Gmc. stem *gant- (already in Pliny as _ganta_ 'wild goose',
also OHG _ganzo_, MLG _gante_, Du. _gent_ 'gander'). I prefer to see _Ganser_ as a normalization
(probably following _Kater_ and the like) of MHG _ganse_ 'gander', OHG *ganso,
standing in the same relation to OE _gan(d)ra_ as OHG _haso_, NHG _Hase_, Du.
_haas_ to OE _hara_, NE _hare_. MHG
_ganse_ was obsolescent, having only marginal attestation in the DWB with the
14th-cent. Swabian acc. sg. _ganssen_ and 15th-cent. Austrian acc. sg. _gansen_;
this form is also cited from the 16th-cent. Moselland.
In this view, the PIE
C-stem *g^Hh2ans- 'goose' (originally 'gaper', since geese often have their
bills open) gave rise to a thematic oxytone *g^Hh2ansó-, reflected as Skt.
_ham.sá-_ 'gander; male swan', and continued as Gmc. *ganza-, WGmc *ganra-, SwG
_ganner_ (with _gann_ back-formed) 'diving bird'. Borrowed into Baltic, this WGmc word yielded
Lith. _gañdras_ and Old Pruss. _gandrus_ (MS. _gandams_) 'stork'. Beside this thematic formation in PIE stood
an amphikinetic masculine /n/-stem, parallel to 'hare' from *k^h2as- 'gray'
(originally 'lacking pigment, hoary'). I
reconstruct the principal singular cases as follows in PIE, Old Western IE (the
centumized ancestor of Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Venetic, and Ligurian), Early
Proto-Germanic (just after Grimm's Law),
Middle PGmc (showing replacement of the weak stem by the middle stem in
the gen. sg.), and Late PGmc (with Verner's Law and other sound-changes
applied):
'Gander' PIE
OWIE EPGmc MPGmc
LPGmc
Nom. Sg. *g^Hh2ánso:n *gHánso:n
*gánso:n *gánso:n *gánso:N
Acc. Sg. *g^Hh2ánsonm. *gHánsonm.
*gánsonm. *gánsonum *gánsanuN
Gen. Sg. *g^H&2nsnés *gH@...
*g@... *g@... *gánziniz
Loc. Sg. *g^H&2nséni *gH@...
*g@... *g@... *gánzini
'Hare' PIE
OWIE EPGmc MPGmc
LPGmc
Nom. Sg. *k^h2áso:n
*káso:n *xáso:n *xáso:n
*xáso:N
Acc. Sg. *k^h2ásonm. *kásonm.
*xásonm. *xásonum *xásanuN
Gen. Sg. *k^&2snós *k@... *x@...
*x@... *xáziniz
Loc. Sg. *k^&2séni *k@... *x@...
*x@... *xázini
In this declension, the
loc. sg. form took over the function of the dative. In West Germanic, *z became *r, and the
alternation was not levelled out of the paradigm until distinct dialects had
developed. Some of these dialects
generalized -r-, others -s-.
'Gannet' (OE _ganot_ st.
m.) presupposes Gmc. *gano:t- against *ganat- in OHG _ganazzo_ wk. m. 'gander;
male coot' and *gant- in Pliny's _ganta_ 'wild goose', OHG _ganzo_ wk. m.
'gander', and other forms. Gannets dive
into the sea with their bills open to catch fish, so I propose a PIE compound
root-noun *g^Hh2an-h1o:d-, *-h1od-, *-h1d- 'gaping eater'. The second element is simply *h1ed- 'eat' in
the /o/-grade appropriate for second elements.
Formally, the first element may be an archaic endingless locative 'with
a gape'. Late PGmc would inherit
*gano:t-, *ganat-, and *gant- (with absorption of *h1 in this position). 'Gannet' has generalized the strong stem to
all the cases like 'foot'. The middle
stem underlies _ganazzo_, while the weak stem gives _ganzo_ and Pliny's _ganta_
(probably a Gmc. st. f. *ganto:). The
original sense of 'diving fish-eating bird' preserved in NE _gannet_ was not
maintained well in continental West Germanic.
DGK
Em Domingo, 16 de Março de 2014 0:30, "dgkilday57@..." <dgkilday57@...> escreveu:
---In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, <josimo70@...> wrote :
Is there any example of Verner's Law shifting -ns->-nZ- ?
JS Lopes
Possibly Swiss German _gann(er)_ 'diving bird', if it is correctly referred to Gmc. *ganzá-, a thematization of the PIE consonant-stem for 'goose' identical to Skt.
_ham.sás_ 'gander; male swan'; cf. Pokorny, IEW 412.
DGK