LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.02.02 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 02 February 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology'

Beste English-speakers,

today I came across my 12-years-old son using something like "Why don't she
come..."- though he hasn't any longer real difficulties to learn English.

I tried to build him a 'donkey's bridge' for the flexion of 'to do' =>
'does' in the third person singular, in explainig there could be a relation
to German 'tut sie'- just as an abbreviation like *do she*.
But- this only would fit for the female case, and so my 'bridge' at once
shrank to a very small, slippery path...

Who knows what's the true etymological origin of  'does'? We have nothing
comparable, neither in German 'er, sie es _tut_' nor in LS: 'hey, sey, dat
(et) _deiht_'. Here we have it in the 2nd person pres. sing.: 'du tu/-s-/t',
LS 'du deih/-s-/t'.

(Making some more thoughts I see of course this E: -s or -es in all verbs
3rd person presence sing. vs. in G and LS always in the 2nd.)

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Jonny wrote above:

> I tried to build him a 'donkey's bridge'

For those of you that don't already know this, it's the literal translation
of German Eselsbrücke, meaning "mnemonic aid/device."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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