LL-L "Phonology" 2008.03.07 (05) [E]

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From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2008.03.06 (01) [E]

From Heather Rendall

Tom Crane wrote  Yes, where do all these neat words come from that begin
with the kn/gn?

I don't know whether you can still find copies but Krahe's Indogermanische
Wortlehre & ( separate book) Wortbildung both give lists and lists of sound
patterns that can be traced throught IE vocabularies

e.g. KR /CR -   = a nasty sound     sometimes with added SKR/SCR....

The longer the vowel, the longer the action     rip ( fast cut)  reap ( slow
cut)   sip (quick )  seep ( slow )

I will have to hunt for my copies to recall exactly what KN - originally
appears to have indicated

Again sorry if my recall is at fault but I am trying to drag up from my
memory some pretty old learning: I recall that the premise is that IE
appears to have created words in 'sound families' that worked on at least
two planes -so a word's consonants would indicate a [maybe onomatopaeic]
relation to the object / concept being named and the vowels would indicate
another characteristic i.e. with verbs as the original verb system was
entirely based on strong verbs, the vowel indicated tense/time.

Set prefixes could alter meaning by making it

absolute    e.g.  reissen   zerreissen   rip to shreds

negative   e.g.   lernen   verlernen

transitive   e.g. be-   prefix   ( originally)

etc etc

Over the years many of the patterns have been softened / assimilated to
others / been misidentified with another pattern / or just plain lost

But it is still one of the most endearing ( to me at least) characteristics
of the IE family that some of these patterns have outlasted the many
cultures that they have passed through.

I was asked once at a seminar why the English word for 'black' was not
'swart' and a fascinating discussion ensued that continued over email until
a satisfactory answer was arrived at which was in brief

English still does have a cognate of 'schwarz' i.e. swarthy but it has
developed a specific meaning of ' dark skinned'  or ' with dark hair and
eyebrows/ beard & moustache.

The colour however uses the Saxon word for 'ink' i.e. blac

A bit of investigation reveals that the clue of further relations is locked
into the 'bl' of 'black'  with is cognate with Latin 'fl'  and Greek  'phl'
and the word in common is flagare / phlegein    to burn

Blac  was soot black used to make ink

The word moved meaning from 'ink' to the colour at sometime - I would love
to know when.

Does LS still have  'Blac'  and with what meaning ?

Is the word for the colour uniform over the LS Sprachgebiet?

Yours curiously

Heather

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From: R. F. Hahn  <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Interesting, Heather.

Low Saxon has *swart* ~ *swatt* for 'black'. However, it has *blak* (*Black*)
for old-time soot-derived ink.

This is what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say about it:
*BLACK*
OE. *blæc*, *blac* (def. *blace*) = OHG. *blah-*, *blach-* (in comb.); a
word of difficult history. In OE., found also (as the metres show) with long
vowel *blǽce*, *blǽcan*, and thus confused with *blác* shining, white:— OTeut.
**blaiko-* (see BLAKE), as is shown by the fact that the latter also occurs
with short vowel, *blǽc*, *blǽcum*; in ME. the two words are often
distinguishable only by the context, and sometimes not by that. (Cf. 7.) ON.
*blakkr* is not an exact phonetic equivalent, but, if native, points to an
OTeut. **blakko-* (for *blak'ko*: see Kluge *Beitr.* ix. 162). Sievers
suggests that the original Teutonic types were **'blǽkno-*, **blak'ko*-,
subsequently levelled to *blǽko-*, *blako-*, *blakko-*, giving the OE. and
ON. words; in this case **blǽk-no-* might be pa. pple. of a vb. **blǽkan* to
burn (cogn. w. Gr. *φλέγειν*), and the original sense 'burnt, scorched.' Cf.
BLATCH, which points to an OTeut. **blakkjo-*, from *blakko-*. In Eng. *
black* has quite displaced the original colour-word SWART, which remains in
the other Teutonic languages.]

*SWART*
[Com. Teut.: OE. *sweart*, = OS., OFris. *swart* (NFris. *sûart*, EFris. *
suurt*, WFris. *swart*), MLG., LG. *swart*, MDu. *swart* (Du. *zwart*),
OHG., MHG. *swarz* (G. *schwarz*), ON. *svartr* (Sw. *svart*, Da. *sort*),
Goth. *swarts*; f. root *swart-* 'dark', of which another grade is found in
ON. *sorta* black dye, *sorti* black cloud, *sortna* to grow black, *Surtr*(see
SURTURBRAND).
While surviving as the regular colour-word in the Continental languages, it
has been superseded in ordinary use in English by *black*.]

    1. Dark in colour; black or blackish; dusky, swarthy.    a. gen.

   b. spec. Of the skin or complexion, or of persons in respect of these.

Cheerio!

Reinhard/Ron
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