Talk:Tag
Latest comment: 5 years ago by Korn in topic German etymology
What about the meaning of Tag in words such as Reichstag or Bundestag? Ferike333 21:17, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
German etymology[edit]
Why is the a long? The answer to the question is valuable information for the etymology section.
Sattel and das preserve short a, so it shouldn't be a general lengthening. Guess: a was lengthend in the open syllable in Tages, Tage and then introduced into the nominative. But it seems to contradict with Zahl, Fall, Hall. Was the lengthening and non-lengthening an arbitrary development based on spelling and spelling-pronunciation? -80.133.105.65 22:32, 19 June 2018 (UTC)
- The lengthening well predates anything resembling fixed spelling or even a moderate spread of literacy. Tag is long exactly for the reasons you name, and still has a general short A in those dialects which do not lengthen vowels in open syllables. The real question is why Sattel is still short. Maybe consonants got doubled before an unstressed syllable ending in a nasal or liquid consonant. That rule exists in southern Low German dialects and would explain forms like Sattel, wissen, essen, Löffel etc. Korn [kʰũːɘ̃n] (talk) 11:34, 20 June 2018 (UTC)