g-Palatalization Dutch and Frisian: Data

Palatalization of word-medial *g in Coastal Dutch – A Frisian substrate sound law? – Legend

General color coding: Green for preserved *g, red for lost *g, and yellow for ambiguous cases.

Columns:

Type: Which “category” of word the row belongs to

-        a: Word-internal *-VgC- throughout the paradigm from de Vaan (2017)

-        b: Word-internal *-VgC in alternation with *-VgV- in the same paradigm from de Vaan (2017)

-        c: Word internal *-VgV- throughout the paradigm from de Vaan (2017)

-        ?: word-internal *-Vgi(V) and word-final *-Vg(V)# from de Vaan (2017: 158)

-        NP: “no palatalization”; words mentioned in the last paragraph of de Vaan (2017: 159)

-        Eng: Words with word-internal *g with either no direct MDu. equivalents or not mentioned by de Vaan, taken from a datset for Old English

Context: phonological context

-        V = any vowel

-        C = any consonant

-        # = word final

Meaning: modern English translation

(m)NL: (middle) Dutch word; color indicates whether *g was preserved (green), lost (red) or lost only in coastal dialects (yellow)

Etymology PWG: Proto (West) Germanic or sometimes Latin origin.

Source etymology: Source for P(W)G etymology:

APV:       Arjen Versloot (= additional or adjusted interpretation on top of mentioned sources)

BT:          Bosworth, Joseph & T. Northcote Toller. 1898. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary; Supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. http://www.bosworthtoller.com/.

EB:          etymologiebank.nl = EWN-online

EWN:      Philippa, Marlies, F. Debrabandere, Arend Quak, Tanneke Schoonheim & Nicoline van der Sijs. 2003. Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. http://www.etymologiebank.nl/.

H&F:      Hogg, Richard M & Robert D. Fulk. 2011. A grammar of Old English Vol. 2, Morphology. Chichester [etc.]: Wiley-Blackwell.

IOB:        Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. [Reykjavík]: Orðabók Háskólans : Mál og menning.

KEPW:   Kroonen, Guus. 2013. Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden: Brill.

KEW:      Kluge, Friedrich & Walther Mitzka. 1975. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. 21st edn. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.

K&M:     Krahe, Hans & Wolfgang Meid. 1967. Germanische Sprachwissenschaft. 3, Wortbildungslehre. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

MDV:      Vaan, Michiel de. 2017. The Dawn of Dutch. Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

OED        Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com. (1 October, 2025).

R&T:       Ringe, Don & Ann Taylor. 2014. A linguistic history of English. Vol.II : The Development of Old English. New York: Oxford University Press.

*VgV Pal *VgC Pal & Short i: These three columns indicate whether each of the three rules given in (1) and (2) and the rule against palatalization of *g after short *i. predict palatalization (-g), no palatalization (+g) or apply vacuously because the relevant context is not present (N/A).

OF-TOT: This column indicates (by color) whether there was palatalization in Old Frisian if applicable, otherwise the tendency of the modern Frisian languages as one block. Additionally, “..” indicates that the predictions by the previous three columns hold, X denotes a conflict with the hypothesized rules and [X] indicates that the conflict is probably the result of additional issues with the word’s etymology (see text of the article).

Old Frisian: Word in old Frisian. WL and OL indicate the dialect of Old Frisian (Western or Eastern)

OF Source: source for Old Frisian word

AFH:    Hofmann, Dietrich & Anne Tjerk Popkema. 2008. Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.

EB:       etymologiebank.nl

GTB:    Geïntegreerde Taalbank; gtb.ivdnt.org

West Frisian, Saterland Frisian and Fering Öömrang: word in the respective modern Frisian language. D. and G. indicate loans from Dutch and German, respectively. Words in “[]” indicate cases where there is no cognate (because the cognate was replaced by the word in brackets) or otherwise inapplicable words.

Sources:

WF:                            GTB (see above)

Saterland Fr.:             Fort, Marron Curtis. 2015. Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht. Hamburg: Buske.

Fering Öömrang:      Faltings, Volkert F. & Reinhard Jannen. 2023. Nei fering-öömrang Wurdenbuk (Nordfriesische Quellen und Studien). 1. Auflage. Husum, Nordsee: Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft.

Sjölin, Bo (ed.). 2002. Fering-Öömrang Wurdenbuk = Wörterbuch der friesischen Mundart von Föhr und Amrum. Neumünster: Wachholtz

Mod. German and Mod. English: Modern German/English cognate or sometimes translation.

V-: vowel preceding *g in Proto (West) Germanic, color coded by vowel quality.

g: indicates whether *g occurred alone or in a cluster in Proto (West) Germanic

-V: vowel following *g in Proto (West) Germanic, color coded by vowel quality.

Remaining columns: Old English word and vowel from the Early Old English glossaries: ‘Épinal’, ‘Erfurt’ and ‘Corpus’:

Herren, Michael W, David W. Porter & Hans Sauer. 2020-25. The Épinal-Erfurt Glossary Project. https://www.doe.utoronto.ca/epinal-erfurt/index.html. (1 October, 2025).