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Germanic Lexicon Project
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Author: Curt
Email: curtbargren at earthlink dot net
Date: 2005-02-18 01:18:42
Subject: Re: How is Gothic 'weihs' pronounced?
Thanks for the language lesson.
I'm winging it with 'wica' from all the Old English dictionaries I've consulted, and from the listing of variants in the Dictionary of Old English Corpus: waca, wace, wacie, waecio, wake, weca, wece, wecie, weoce, wica, wice, wico, wiice, wike, woce, wocia, wocie, woeca, woke, wuca, wuce, wucou, wucu (and others).
Also from its listing in the Middle English Dictionary, which defines it as an officer, official, or obligation, and traces it to Old English wik(e), which the DOE lists as a variant of 'wica'.
The Dictionary of Old English Corpus lists wica (and forms of wica) and variants separately from wicca (and forms of wicca) and variants, though several of the words in both groups look very much alike, especially verbs and adjectives. In some places the sounds seem to match, but I'm basing this on simplistic information concerning c, cc, ck, k, and so on.
The DOE does not have definitions for any of these yet, so I've had to track them down one at a time. I'm not even sure what the Corpus means by its specific use of 'variant,' but I'm assuming its the same meaning other dictionaries employ. I've spent hours copying citations and quotes and trying to translate the latter, but my translations would probably have you rolling on the floor. Fortunately I don't need to actually use them. The author whose use of 'wica' was driving me crazy actually had a code to his word-usage, which I finally figured out the other night.
Your observation on false derivations based on the similar appearance and sound of words is something I've been trying to get at for a very long time. You're the first person to explain the principles involved in tying words together. But, are you sure that 'much' and 'mucho' are coincidental? This is some coincidence. Also why do sound changes happen within a language as whole, and not randomly?
One of the problems I've had with so many Old English sites, is that a lot of them seem to be operated by people who belong to groups or clubs trying to re-live the glory days of medieval Europe, and the information they provide is very hard to take seriously. Just trying to track down information on Old English 'wica' has been a nightmare, because I end up with thousands of listings for 'Wicca' sites that seem to be run mostly by teenagers or insane people, whose termonologies appear to have been invented on the spot, and whose quotations from old sources are invariably mangled. I'm not interested in the fantastic musings of True Believers; I want dry information.
Any direction would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Curt