NW vs E Germanic

[Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen]

On Sat, 22 Jan 2000, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

>> That spells unity for Norse and West Germanic. However, then there is
>> the Verschaerfung problem which seemingly combines Norse and Gothic
>> to the exclusion of West Germanic. On balance I believe one must see
>> this as secondary disappearance of (at least some) Verschaerfung in
>> West Germ., so that the events that produced Versch. operated in the
>> common prehistory of ALL the Germanic we know.

> Excuse my ignorance. Can you explain Verschaerfung?

Oh yes, but not any better than already done by Jasanoff (in the MSS back
in 1978: A verb like *haww-i/a- was *kawH-e/o- (acut in Lith. ka'uti
'hammer, forge'), the loss of the laryngeal yielded hiatus in *hau.e/a-
which was filled by a replica of the preceding glide, the result being
*hauw-i/a-; likewise for, say, *woiH-es 'walls' > *wai.iz > *waijiz >
*wajj-iz, root stem in ON veggr, secondary u-stem in Goth -waddjus.

>>> Is there any merit to the idea that there was a separate branch of
>>> Germanic including Anglian, Jutish and pre-Frisian, intermediate between N
>>> & W Germanic, andf that modern English and Frisian are the result of a
>>> fusion between this and W Lowland Germanic? [...]

>> I would like to know what linguistic facts that idea is based on.

> 	Me too :>
> 	Seriously, the idea of an Ingwaeonic branch is something I've read
> in passing in various places without any real elaboration.
> 	I suppose they have in mind such things as retention of initial
> /s-/, /_th_/ & /_dh_/ in English

Oh, if you mean Ingwaeonic, that IS a fact you have to accept, note
(1) the unit plural (old 3pl used of 1pl and 2pl also); (2) loss of nasal
before voiceless spirants (Eng. mouth, goose). At least these are shared
by Old Saxon, Old English and Frisian to the exclusion of OHG. You could
perhaps add monophthongization of *ai (OS e:, OE a:, OFr. both) if this is
not too trivial. My expression of amazement was prompted by the word
"Jutish" which I take to denote a Danish dialect group; but if the old
Jutes went to England they may well have been (or become) Ingwaeones.

Jens