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Notes on the Etymologies of English big and Gothic ga-

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Garry W. Davis
Garry W. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Foreign Languages and LinguisticsThe University of Wisconsin, MilwaukeeP.O. Box 413Milwaukee, WI 53201–0413 [[email protected]]
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Extract

During the Northwest Germanic period, *ɣaβiɣs ‘rich’ (Go. gabigs / gabeigs ‘rich’ < giban ‘to give’) and related forms (Go. gabigjan ‘to make rich’, gabignan ‘to be rich’) were reanalyzed as consisting of the prefix *ɣa- + root. This reanalysis was triggered by the prevailing Germanic stress pattern (indicated where necessary by a raised tick '), since *ɣaβiɣs was stressed on the first syllable of the root (thus *'ɣaβiɣs). while nominal and adjectival compounds that consisted of *ɣa- + root ('ga-qumps ‘assembly’, 'ga-fulgins ‘hidden’, 'ga-hails ‘hale’) were stressed on the prefix. Thus, an extrapolated root form *ɣiγ- > *biγ- was created that then existed parallel to *γaβiγs in Northwest Germanic. The newly created form *biγs survived and developed into ME big(ge) ‘strong, sturdy’ (> Eng. big), while OE gifig, ON g˛fugr ‘noble’, and related forms in Old High German and Gothic are reflexes of *ɣaβiɣs.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , Spring 2000 , pp. 41 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2000

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