[gothic-l] Re: 'Cow' in Gothic

[edmundfairfax@yahoo.ca [gothic-l]]

'Cow' in Gothic: 

 All of the extant words for 'cow' in the early Germanic languages go back to one of two Late Proto-Germanic root-variants, namely *'ku-' with a long 'u' (hence OE 'cu,' ON 'kyr' OFr 'ku') and *'ko-' with a long 'o' (OS 'ko,' OHG 'kuo'). The proto-form is regularly reconstructed as a consonant-stem, that is, with no thematic element. The alternation in vowel here is most likely owing to the existence of Ablaut in an earlier version of the proto-paradigm, to wit, *koz in the nominative singular, and *ku- in the oblique forms. By analogical levelling, the *ku- variant was extended throughout the paradigm in the more northwesterly Germanic dialects and *ko- throughout the remaining ones. For further details, see, for example, Guus Kroonen's >Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic< (2013, p. 299). The expected form for 'cow' in Gothic then would be *'kos,' a feminine consonant-stem, that is, inflected like 'baurgs.'
 

 Edmund
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