LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 24.OCT.1999 (01) [E]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Etymology"

Ian quoted a letter he received:

> > Yes, ochtend (as in ochtendbladeren, etc.) is a Germanic word.
> The cognate
> > is Gothic uhtwo /u:xtwo:/ f(n) "dawn" and is composed of an ablaut
> variant -
> > i.e. the zero grade - of IE *nok't-, which appears in Gothic nahts etc.,

I was surprised to find "ochenin" marked as obsolete in the Scottish
National Dictionary. It may be something I read in the makars further back
than I can remember rather than living Scots. The SND quotes Old Norse
"otta" and Old English "uhta".

In (living) Scots we also have "daw" for "to dawn" and "dawin" for "dawn" or
"dawning", suggesting to me that the "n" in the English "dawn" may be a
participial suffix to which the participial suffix has been added yet again
after assimilation. If this is a doubled suffix there seems to be quite a
pattern of them (to list only the English in most cases):

(mor)?        morn                    morning
daw (S)       dawin(S)/dawn           dawning
uhta (OE)     (ochten/ochen)?         ochenin (S)
eve           even (e.g. evensong)    evening

I think the word "mor" is an entirely fictional back formation! Although one
might be feel justified in interpolating ochten/ochen?

Do sequences like the following fit the same pattern or not?:

dark          darken                  darkening
light         lighten                 lightening
gard (ON &c)  garden                  gardening

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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