--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Alan Thompson" <athompso@...>
wrote:

> the Glossary in 'Sweet´s Anglo-Saxon Reader' cites:
>
> lagu f. law from ON. *lagu, lög' ie not lögr

I have often seen cognate words having different genders in
different germanic languages. For example in German "boat"
is neuter (=das Boot), but in Norwegian it is masculine
(=ein baat).

Lögr would correspond to English "lake", wouldn't it?
Lög n. is however, it seems, derived from ON "lag".
I also recall that this word is related to a verb that
means to lay something (down). The law is "that which has
been laid down" or determined. In German one uses "Gesetz"
and also "festsetzen" (= to fix). The Dutch use another word
for law, which is "wet". It is therefore quite possible that
English "law" derives from Scandinavian, since it would otherwise
be more natural for English to use words that are similar to
Dutch and German words. After all, Anglo-Saxon originally came
from those parts.

Xigung

> Zoega´s Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic lists 'lög' as neuter
> plural.
>
> Again, I´m no expert but just as strong verbs could become weak verbs by
> analogy with other verbs, I couldn´t see why a neuter noun couldn´t
> become a feminine noun by a similar process. Indeed, almost all modern
> english nouns have become 'de-sexed' despite being originally masculine,
> feminine or neuter.
>
> Alysseann
>
>
>
>
> I'm trying to find out whether Old English <lagu> is a loan word from
> Old
> Norse or a cognate. English scholar Roger Lass argues that it cannot be
> a
> loan because ON <lögr> is a masculine stem whereas OE <lagu> is a
> feminine
> u-stem. Opinions? Thank you.
>
> Dan