/θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

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alice
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/θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

Post by alice »

What happens to it in general? It seems to become /t/ initially, but I can't find any decent examples in other positions. Did it become /d/ between vowels?
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Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

Post by Soap »

In Latin it became /s/ in at least one word: *hamiþijan "shirt" > Latin camisia. I suspect that later on, it might have been seen as identical to the Greek θ, which would help its being perceived as "a /t/ sound".
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Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

Post by hwhatting »

Soap wrote:In Latin it became /s/ in at least one word: *hamiþijan "shirt" > Latin camisia.
That word may have gone through Celtic first.

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Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

Post by linguoboy »

Poking around, I did find:

OE Friðuswīþ > Fr Frideswide
*Godofriþ > OFr Godefroy
*menigþa > OFr maint

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Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

Post by mèþru »

It seems to be borrowed irregularly. Perhaps allophony in Germanic languages (especially with [ð]) played a hand?
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Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance

Post by linguoboy »

mèþru wrote:It seems to be borrowed irregularly. Perhaps allophony in Germanic languages (especially with [ð]) played a hand?
Periodisation is also thorny. These borrowings have flowed into Romance from its earliest stages right up to the present day and different Germanic varieties fortited their dental fricatives at different times (if, in fact, they ever did).

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