OHG dw- and tw-

Hi, you described the development of zwingen from Old High German dwingen as irregular. And also that of Zwerg. Did you just suppose that or is it founded? No criticism intended, I'm just wondering because for all I know this a very regular development that affected all stems having tw- and dw- in Old High German. Other examples are the archaic zwagen (from dwahen), Zwehle (from dwehila) and zwerch (from dwerah; cf. Zwerchfell). There are no native words with initial dw- or tw- in modern German. A few have qu-, which is a Central German development found in the standard language e.g. in Quark (from MHG twarc). Cf. also Zwetschge with a West Central German variant Quetsche. I've already changed the etymologies of zwingen and Zwerg, but I still wanted to check with you. Best regards.

I suppose irregular is relative. It's irregular within the larger context of the High German consonant shift, but it's regular on its own, as an exception.

Yeah.. I wouldn't call that irregular, though. An irregular development would be one where a particular word developed in a way that we don't understand... But okay, we're on the same page then.