<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">==============================</font><font size="2">=======================<br> L O W L A N D S - L - 16 November 2011 - Volume 03<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"> </font></p><br><p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt">From:
R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></p>
Subject: <font size="2">Semantics<br><br>Dear Lowlanders,<br><br>I've long been intrigued by the semantic development of the word complex "dear" within the Germanic languages, and I wonder if you have any information to add.<br>
<br>"Dear" and its relatives can mean the following:<br></font><ol><li><font size="2">highly valued (dear to one's heart)</font></li><li><font size="2">expensive (having a high price)<br></font></li></ol><font size="2">Clearly, the common denominator is "valuable" or "valued."<br>
<br>In the English-speaking world there appears to be a split: <br></font><ol><li><font size="2">American English uses "dear" only in the first-mentioned sense, with idiomatic exceptions (i.e., supposedly archaisms) such as "to pay a dear price" or "to pay dearly."<br>
</font></li><li><font size="2">Non-American English, at least many varieties of it, uses "dear" in both senses. Thus, for instance, in Australian English you may say something like "Computers are very expensive" and "Computers are very dear." The latter sounds strange to most American.<br>
</font></li></ol><font size="2">How does this play out in related language varieties?<br></font><ul><li>Scots:<i> dear</i><i> </i><font size="2"><i> </i>both 'expensive' and 'dear'</font></li><li><font size="2">West Frisian: </font><i>djoer</i><font size="2"> both 'expensive' and 'dear'</font></li>
<li><font size="2">Low Saxon: <i>düür </i>'expensive' (somewhat archaic also as 'dear (to one's heart))'</font></li><li><font size="2">Dutch: <i>duur</i> 'expensive' (?)</font></li><li><font size="2">Limburgish: <i>deur</i></font><font size="2"> (<i>dœr</i>) 'expensive'</font><font size="2"> </font></li>
<li><font size="2">Afrikaans: <i>duur</i></font><font size="2"> 'expensive' (?, but <i>dierbaar</i> 'valuable', 'esteemed')</font><font size="2"> </font></li><li><font size="2">German: <i>teuer</i> 'expensive' (somewhat archaic also as 'dear (to one's heart)')</font></li>
<li><font size="2">Yiddish: <i>tayer</i> (טײַער) both 'expensive' and 'dear' <br></font></li><li><font size="2">Danish: <i>dyr</i></font><font size="2"> 'expensive'</font></li><li>Norwegian: <i>dyr</i><font size="2"> 'expensive'</font></li>
<li><font size="2">Swedish:</font><i> dyr</i><font size="2"> 'expensive'</font></li><li><font size="2">Icelandic: </font><i><span id="result_box" class="short_text" lang="is"><span class="hps">dýr</span></span></i><font size="2"><i> </i>'expensive'</font></li>
</ul>Once we get into the ancestral language varieties it becomes a different game, and the two meanings will eventually merge. In other words, somewhere along the line a semantic split occurred.<br><br>Any further information or simply thoughts?<br>
<br>Regards and thanks,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br>Seattle, USA<font size="2"><br><br></font></div></div><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2"><font color="#888888"><div style="text-align: center; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
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