[lit-ideas] Children of the Sun
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:55:19 EDT
D. Ritchie quotes from Andreas Ramos:
>> Humans only a meter tall? Do they still exist?
and replies:
>Yes, Andreas. We call them "chil-dren." Now JLS
>can give us some thoughts on the oddness of the word,
>and whether the Goth "kilpam," "womb"
>(from which we derive "children") has some
>connection -- that my SOED is not revealing -- to
>the roots of "kill." Wouldn't
>that be strange.
----
Well, this below is what the OED says -- no mention of 'kill'. Wouldn't
that be strange, indeed.
What the OED does mention is Siever's doctrine that German "kind" -- as in
"Kinder", child -- is a 'perversion', Sievers wrote, of "child". The OED notes
that in Anglo-Saxon England, the plural of 'child' was 'child'. Geary knows
more about this stuff.
Cheers,
JL
---
'child' -- from the Old English "cild", neuter -- from 'child' -- fro type
(hypothetical) kilthom (Old English "-id" from Old Teutonic "-ith") from root
(hypothetical) kilth-, whence also Gothic kilthei womb, inkiltho, pregnant
woman."
"Not found elsewhere: in the other West Germanic languages its place is
taken by "kind". As the form of OHGerman, OSaxon, OFrisian "kind" is not
satisfactorily explained from the root "ken" (Aryan "gen-") â??beget, bearâ??,
and is,
for Low German at least, quite irregular, Prof. Tony Sievers suggests the
possibility that "kind" is a perversion of Southern Anglian "cild", by
assimilation to the derivatives of root "ken'", which may have spread from OHG.
to OS.
and Fris. The OE. plural was normally cild."
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