No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2008
Although it has long been recognized that the i of OHG gi-could be lost before vowels and certain consonants, the handbooks recognize no loss of i in bi-. This is one reason why many scholars are reluctant to derive OHG irbarmên from *ir-bi-armên and irbunnan from *ir-bi-unnan, instead positing an original prefix ab- and comparing semantically similar forms such as OE ofearmian. In fact, however, loss of i in hi-, though highly sporadic, is attested before vowels and before r and l from the 8th century on, and provides a basis for the etymology of two hitherto unexplained words in Notker: ferbrasên and prázelig. There are thus clear parallels for a similar explanation of irbarmên and irbunnan.