Starting from present-day German Nachtigall ‘nightingale’, which shows an uncommon and unexpected i-linker, this article provides a morphological analysis of the word and its cognates. Through the frame of historical linguistics, and in particular the historical phonology and morphology of Proto-Germanic, it can be shown that Nachtigall and its Germanic cognates witness a relic word-formation that can be traced back to a delocatival compound in Proto-Indo-European. Comparative evidence allows for just such an etymology within poetic phraseology as well.
Singin’ in the Night: German Nachtigall with Its Cognates and Delocatival Compounding with “Night” in Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European / Muscianisi, DOMENICO GIUSEPPE. - In: AMSTERDAMER BEITRAGE ZUR ALTEREN GERMANISTIK. - ISSN 0165-7305. - 83:1(2023), pp. 26-44. [10.1163/18756719-12340283]
Singin’ in the Night: German Nachtigall with Its Cognates and Delocatival Compounding with “Night” in Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European
Domenico Giuseppe Muscianisi
2023-01-01
Abstract
Starting from present-day German Nachtigall ‘nightingale’, which shows an uncommon and unexpected i-linker, this article provides a morphological analysis of the word and its cognates. Through the frame of historical linguistics, and in particular the historical phonology and morphology of Proto-Germanic, it can be shown that Nachtigall and its Germanic cognates witness a relic word-formation that can be traced back to a delocatival compound in Proto-Indo-European. Comparative evidence allows for just such an etymology within poetic phraseology as well.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
