What is Relatedness?

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

"Eduard Selleslagh" <edsel at glo.be> wrote:

>English Dutch
>other ander
>tooth tand: here the -n- has remained!
>soft zacht: the ch (jota sound) - f correspondance is systematic: laugh lachen
>(but English orthography is still witness of a similar pronunciation in times
>past). With German:kraft kracht.

These cases are not comparable.  In English, there was a sound
shift /x/ > /f/ (as well as /x/ > zero, cf. the split of the
English interdental fricative into T ~ D).  In Dutch, there was a
sound shift /ft/ > /xt/.  German mostly kept things as they were.
So:

sanft  soft   zacht   < *samft- (Ingw. *sa~ft)
Kraft  craft  kracht  < *kraft-

vs.

lachen laugh  lachen  < *hlahhjan

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl