[gothic-l] The Letter H (was Re: Gothic word for King)

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi Troels,

in Old Norse, the "breaking" of [e] was conditionned by a following 
[a] or [u/w]. [e] before [a] became "ja", while before [u] or [w] 
it became "jo," (here "o," means a "hooked" o).
Examples:
Proto-Nordic *erlaR (in inscriptions: erilaR) > jarl
*helpan > hjalpan "to help"
*meku > mjo,k "much"
*etunaR > jo,tonn "giant"
*melwa > mjo,l "flour"
in Old English, the "breaking" of [e] was conditionned by a following 
[r], if I'm not wrong:
*erla- > OE eorl "earl"
Gmc. *ertha > OE eorthe "earth"
Gmc. *herta > OE heorte "heart"
I don't know if there is "breaking sound derived from a consonant" in 
any Germanic language. But my personal impression is that there is no 
connection between erilaR/jarl/earl and Herul.

Francisc

--- In gothic-l at y..., "Troels Brandt" <trbrandt at p...> wrote:
> Hi Francisc
> 
> --- In gothic-l at y..., "Francisc Czobor" <czobor at c...> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > The ON form jarl (and maybe also the OE form eorl) is due to the 
> > "breaking" of [e] before [a] in the original form *erla-. 
> 
> I agree, but could this "breaking" sound derive from a consonant in 
> another language?
> 
> > In the form 
> > "erilaR", that occurs in runic inscriptions, the "i" is only "ein 
> > heller Sproßvokal", according to Andreas Heusler's "Altisländische 
> > Elementarbuch" (Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg, 1967).
> 
> Troels


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