The place of substrate words in the 'Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen'

Conference item

In etymological dictionaries of Indo-European languages it has become a more and more standard procedure to ascribe words with an uncertain or not known indo-european etymology to borrowings from an - otherwise completely unknown - substrate language. This trend has even gone so far to include words that until now were supposed to have a good indo-european etymology. The supposed substrate influence is especially found firstly in etymological dictionaries originating in the Netherlands (cp. for example the 'Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series') and secondly in the work of Vennemann and researchers related with him. Therefore, as writing on an etymological dictionary of Old High German, one is often confronted with the question of how assumed substrate influences have to be incorporated in the dictionary, if at all.

In the lecture a number of assumed examples for substrate words will be discussed. The main focus will lie on the following three questions:

• Why are substrate influences assumed at all?
• What speaks generally in favour for an inherited etymology, what for a substrate word: is it enough for a word to have no indo-european etymology?
• What is the methodological advantage and the scientific value in assuming a substrate word?

It will be shown that the assumption of a substrate origin must in most cases be dismissed for methodological reasons.

Authors: Schuhmann, R

• Alternative title: Presented at Germanic Lexicography 2 session
• Publication status: Not published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Edition: Author's Original
• Language: English
• Keywords: etymology; substrate words; dictionaries
• Subjects: Lexicography