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/θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:39 am
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?
Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 9:26 am
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".
Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:25 am
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.
Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:58 am
by linguoboy
Poking around, I did find:
OE Friðuswīþ > Fr Frideswide
*Godofriþ > OFr Godefroy
*menigþa > OFr maint
Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:35 pm
by mèþru
It seems to be borrowed irregularly. Perhaps allophony in Germanic languages (especially with [ð]) played a hand?
Re: /θ/ in Germanic loans into Romance
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 5:44 pm
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).