minimal pairs

[Wolfgang Schulze]

> I believe that the "th" in Goethe and Luther (which I've also seen
> as Ludher) is an orthographic survival of the dental fricatives
> in German.

Goethe: The name stems from what is known as the North Thüringen mixed zone
(Low - High German). Historically is had -d-, hence 'Gode' which is an
abbreviation of 'Godefried'(in which the concepts of 'god' (Germanic *guth)
and 'good' (Germanic *go:da) appear to be mixed up).

Luther: The same problem as Goethe: The name stems from the Thüringer mixed
zone.

The father of M. Luther still wrote his name as 'luder'< Liuthari (in a Low
German variant)
= liut 'people' x (h)lu:t 'clear', 'famous' (?) + hari 'army'.
In the source language (Low German) we had the voiced dental fricative
(cf. Old Engl. leod '(first) man' x (h)lu:d 'laud' (West Germanic
*hlu:da- (-to particple)).

For both names, we have to start with a voiced dental stop (in Old Saxonian
and/or Middle Low German (Luder / Gode)) which was artificially transformed to
-t- (then written -th- à la mode).

Sorry, no better news...

Merry Cristmas to all,
Wolfgang
--
********************
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze
Institut für Allgemeine und Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft
Universität München - Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 - D-80539 München
Tel.: ++49-(0)89-2180 2486 (secretary) // ++49-(0)89-2180 5343 (office)
Fax:  ++49-(0)89-2180 5345
Email: 	W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Web:   	http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wschulze/
********************