The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
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Rosemarie Lühr
Abstract
In Germanic a group of nouns belonging to the n-stems display a long *ē followed by geminate voiced stops, MHG tāpe ‘paw’ (*dēbban-), OHG tāpe, MHG hā(c)ke ‘hook’ (*hēggan-), OHG chrācco ‘uncinus: barb, fuscina: trident’ (*krēggan-), OHG chrāppo ‘aspidius, uncinus: barb’ (*krēbban-), MHG snācke snōcke ‘midge’ (*snēggan-). While Kluge explained geminate voiceless stops as lengthening before *n, he attributed geminate voiced stops to analogy. But the investigation about whether geminate voiceless stops are allowed following long vowels in Proto-Germanic reveals that Kluge’s opinion is indefensible. As sound symbolism and expressivity are present in the Germanic lexicon, it is assumed that mental phenomena caused these sounds. In this regard the status of the long *ē will be clarified. It is postulated that the long vowels in front of geminate voiced stops have the function of reinforcing expressivity by creating this phonetically odd mixture.
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Vorwort der Herausgeber
- Contents
- A note on the functional distribution of ille in Late Latin
- The origin of the Baltic inchoative in -sta-
- Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs
- The long vowel in WGmc. *hlūdV
- Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
- Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or “Avoid Ambiguity”
- Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?
- Intensifiers and reflexives in SAE, Insular Celtic and English
- Beiträge zur Leidener Arbeitstagung 2013
- Ares the Ripper
- Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
- “Narten formations” versus “Narten roots”
- Surprise at length of Tocharian nouns
- From phonetics to grammar
- Notes on three “acrostatic” neuter s-stems
- Monosyllabic circumflexion or shortening?
- The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages
- The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
- The fourth makes it whole?
- Wortindex
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Vorwort der Herausgeber
- Contents
- A note on the functional distribution of ille in Late Latin
- The origin of the Baltic inchoative in -sta-
- Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs
- The long vowel in WGmc. *hlūdV
- Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
- Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or “Avoid Ambiguity”
- Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?
- Intensifiers and reflexives in SAE, Insular Celtic and English
- Beiträge zur Leidener Arbeitstagung 2013
- Ares the Ripper
- Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
- “Narten formations” versus “Narten roots”
- Surprise at length of Tocharian nouns
- From phonetics to grammar
- Notes on three “acrostatic” neuter s-stems
- Monosyllabic circumflexion or shortening?
- The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages
- The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
- The fourth makes it whole?
- Wortindex
