Hi,
Yes, I think you are right. German "legen" is the same as "laying
something down" (Das Buch auf dem Tisch legen)
The other verb "liegen", that was mentioned, is however slightly
different, because it is the passive variant.
(I am lying in bed, as opposed to, I lay down my burden)
In Dutch you have the same active/passive pair as leggen/liggen.
And in Norwegian legge/ligge (Danish variant) or leggja/liggja
(landsmål).


In Dutch "law" is called WET. (wetboek = lawbook)
In German or "Hochdeutsch" it is different, because
it is called "Gesetz". (that which has been set or put)

When Anglo-Saxon or West-Germanic split from Norse?
According to runology very early, before the first
runes were ever written.

I do not even know if the question is properly posed.
When did, for example, Romanian split from French?
(Wrong question, their similarities are due to both
being [in part] derived from Latin)

Vale,
Xigung.

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Imre <hobbi-germanista@...> wrote:



> As to the German, I think it does not have a direct cognate to "lag"
> or "lög" with the meaning "law" , though it has the word "legen" (to
> lay, place, put etc.) which is the cognate of ON "leggja" and
> Swedish "lägga", the word that you have mentioned. If we make a
> noun from the verb "legen" we get "Lage", which corresponds exactly
> to "lag" or "lög" but has a different meaning: "situation, position,
> location etc."
>
> It is also strange that the English has the word "lay" (the cognate
> to "lag" and "lög") but it has no law related meaning, instead it has
> taken the cognate word from ON. Just as "Lage" in German doesn't
> have one either. So it seems that "lag-" and "lög-" word-stem acquired
> a law related meaning after the West Germanic and Nordic languages
> got away from each other.
>
> To see if that is also true for the East Germanic branch, I have also
> checked a Gothic dictionary for a cognate word, and I have
> found "laggjan" corresponding to NHG "legen", NSW "lägga" and
> ON "leggja" and English "lay", and has the meaning "to lay, lay down,
> set, place", but not "law".
>
>
> Imre
>
> PS. A question to everyone: To what date or century are the West
> Germanic languages estimated to have split form Old Norse?
>
> PSS. Rightly, Haukur has mentioned that German "Gesetz" also derives
> from a word meaning "lay", i.e. the German "setzen".
>
> PSSS. The Finnish has the word "laki" meaning "law" which is a loan-
> word from ON-Old Swedish. This comparison also shows that the
> Finnish makes loan-words unvoiced, just as "native" Finnish words are
> also unvoiced (with the exception of "d" and "v"). Banana
> sounds "panaani", to give a funny example;-)
>
>
>
>
>
> Haukur Þorgeirsson <haukurth@...>
>
> >
> > > Could someone tell me if the Latin ’lex’ was a cognate
of the
> > > words 'lag, law, lög' etc. in the Germanic languages? Or is it a
loan-
> > > word?
> >
> > I think the English 'law' is a loan-word from Old Norse.
> > The Latin 'lex' is supposed to be related to 'legere',
> > "to pick up".
> >
> >
> > > I know that the English ‘law’ is a loan-word from the
Old Norse. I
> was
> > > trying to figure out what could be the German cognate of this word,
> but
> > > it seems to me there isn’t such a one. Law is either
‘Recht’ or
> ‘Gesetz’
> > > in German (the latter has the Old English cognate
‘gesetnys’).
> >
> > I think 'lög' is related to 'leggja' and ultimately
> > means something like "that which is laid down". That's
> > something close to the meaning of 'Gesetz' isn't it?
> >
> > Apparently there's an Old Saxon word 'gilagu' meaning
> > "decisions, fate". Compare with Old Norse 'ørlög'.
> >
> > Kveðja,
> > Haukur
> >
>