Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/tēkaną
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This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence. |
Proto-Germanic
Alternative forms
Etymology
From an apparent Proto-Indo-European *deh₁g- (“to touch”), with the only formal cognate being Tocharian B täk- (“to touch, feel (with the hand); to fetch”), ceśäṃ (“touches; takes”, 3sg.pres.).[2] Ringe suggests that either pre-Germanic or pre-Tocharian borrowed the word from the other.[3]
Several authors have noted the similarity of this root to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch, take (by the hand)”) (whence *þakkōną (“to touch lightly, tap”), Latin tangō (“I touch”), Ancient Greek τεταγών (tetagṓn, “having seized”, ptcp.)), but the two cannot be reconciled by traditional means, as the "unshifted" Germanic *t is not expected to come from PIE *t in this phonetic environment, nor should Germanic *ē (as in the Gothic descendant only) have developed from PIE *eh₂, and Tocharian short *ä cannot continue PIE *eh₂ under normal conditions. However, the stop consonant in Germanic can be explained if it developed from a cluster *dg with voicing assimilation from earlier *tg.[2] According to the hypothesis by Mottausch, the reduplicated form *te-th₂g- (as in Latin tetigī (“have touched”), Ancient Greek τεταγών (tetagṓn)) regularly lost its laryngeal in pre-Germanic, and so the resulting *te-tg- would have required voicing assimilation to *te-dg-, which was subsequently back-formed to *de-dg- to restore the normal pattern of reduplication, resulting in the unshifted Germanic /t/.[4] Additionally, the pre-form *deh₁g- that resulted in the long vowel in Germanic can be maintained, if it is assumed that the second stop in this pre-Germanic *dedg- underwent dissimilation to glottalic *h₁ = [ʔ].[5] Kroonen upholds this derivation, though he notes its great difficulties. For a partial alternative, he suggests a back-formation of *tēkaną from iterative *þakkōną (cf. his similar derivation of *slēpaną from *slapp/bōną).[6]
Pronunciation
Verb
Inflection
Derived terms
- *takô (“hold, seizure”)
Descendants
The North and West Germanic descendants have a class 6 strong verb, while Gothic has a class 7 verb. This is presumably a result of the vowel change in the past, combined with the change of ē to ā in those languages. This gave the ablaut pattern ā-ō-ā which could easily be changed into the a-ō-a of the 6th class.
- Proto-West Germanic: *takan
- Old Norse: taka
- Gothic: 𐍄𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌽 (tēkan)
References
- ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003) “*takanan”, in A Handbook of Germanic Etymology[1], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 400
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “täk-”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, pages 305–306
- ^ Ringe, Don (1988–1990) “Evidence for the Position of Tocharian in the Indo-European Family?”, in Sprache, volume 34, published 1991, page 105-15 of 59–123
- ^ Mottausch, Karl-Heinz (1993) “Zwei verkannte germanisch-italische Isoglossen”, in Historische Sprachforschung, volume 106, pages 148–175
- ^ Kortlandt, Frederik H.H. (2000) “Old Norse taka, Gothic tekan, Greek τεταγών”, in North-Western European Language Evolution, volume 36, pages 59–65
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*takan- ~ *tēkan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 507: “The Germanic strong verb is clearly derived from PIE *teh₂g-, but the development of this root into *takan- and *tēkan- is not straightforward. […]”
- ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003) “*tēkanan”, in A Handbook of Germanic Etymology[2], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 406