Of course most words we use have deeper origins than Anno Domini Europe. I beleive what we were discussing was when the words came into English and by what means. And there were differences in the Germainic languages of Europe in the time frame(s) we usually reference in this discussion group. Close as all the languages still were in the "Viking Age", there were, nonetheless, differences, and it is improbable that "take" (the Norse word) would have replaced "nim" (the common West Germanic word) had not the Danelaw become a factor. Even our third person plural pronoun set is attributable to the Norse. The interesting things are the usual investigative words: how, when, where, who, and why. In the case of "they, them, their" the reason seems to be that the OE words in use were rather weak, and the ON equivalents were accepted (the "why" if you will).

Linguists spend much time on sound shifts and these explain the primary differences between Germanic languages and Latin-based languages, for example. But there are large numbers of words that are peculiar to Germanic that are not even immediately traceable to IE (e.g., "silver"). Tracking down their origins is difficult, often hypothetical, and perhaps never destined to be known for certain.

Erek


--- "William Calhoun" <kubrick36@...> wrote:

One thing that quite frequently leaves me very disappointed, although this
may be a bit off topic, is when an etymology is given for a word in a
dictionary (either standard or etymological) and the etymology terminates at
Old English. Now I am no authority on Old English, but I was under the
impression that no word can just begin in Old English seeing that the
language was formed from German, Norse, French, Latin, or Celtic. I assume
that people living in Anglo-Saxon Enlgand didn't just go walking around
making up names for things. I assume the words were passed down from
another language. Usually the etymology says "from Middle English . . .
from Old English." Perhaps the etymologist just leaves it there meaning
that the word comes from the Anglo-Saxons bring it from Northern Europe. Am
I right or am I way off?
-William

_________________________________________________________________
Get a FREE online virus check for your PC here, from McAfee.
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963


A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.

Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/

To escape from this funny farm try rattling off an e-mail to:

norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norse_course/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/




_____________________________________________________________
Free email, travel forums, user reviews, maps - all at
http://www.caribbean-on-line.com