Latin mecum, tecum, etc.

[Eduard Selleslagh]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Gustafson" <stevegus at aye.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 5:12 AM

[ moderator snip ]

> I was reminded, when I replied to this, that (being a lawyer in my day job)
> I've occasionally wondered about the antiquity, or lack of same, of
> formations like "whereof," "whereas" and "therefore."

> I'm not that well read in Old English, but I don't recall that they are
> common there, if they exist at all.  There are not many of these
> constructions in Old Norse, and those are mostly late.  But a few similar
> constructions arose in modern Swedish, like -varigenom- and -varfo"r-.  The
> use of "where" and "there" when "what" or "that" would seem to be expected
> is also somewhat peculiar, and shared between English and Swedish.

> Are these imitations or calques on Latin forms?

[Ed Selleslagh]

Also Dutch and German, therefore W. Germanic (and its generally acknowledged
impact on Swedish, but less to none on older Scandinavian).

Dutch: d/waarvoor, d/waarvan, d/waarom, etc.
German: wofür/dafür, wovon/davon, warum/darum, etc.

I think this is authentic West-Germanic. E.g. Dutch and German use
Waarom/warum? for 'Why?' and have no other word for it that doesn't involve a
postposition.

Ed.