*þiudisk

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *þiudisk "of the people, popular, vernacular" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

In its account the word is inherited from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz (“of the people, popular”), formed like *þeudu "people, tribe" with the suffix *-isk.^[1][2] Köbler too sets up a Proto-Germanic *þeudiska-, *þeudiskaz,^[3][4] and EWA writes the early Old High German form *þiudisk.^[5]

Morphology

An adjective,^[3][5] formed with a suffix that Old High German uses mainly for derivatives of the names of peoples and for loan translations of Latin church words.^[5]

Evidence

The word first appears in a Medieval Latin form, Medieval Latin theodiscus: at an Anglo-Saxon synod of 786, in the judgment on Duke Tassilo at Ingelheim in 788 and in a capitulary of Charlemagne for Italy of 801.^[5] EWA notes that everyone who used the Latin word was connected more or less directly with the court of Charlemagne and his successors.^[5] Native Old High German diutisc appears only in the Tegernsee glosses on Virgil of the 10th century, then often in Notker, and is established in German literature from the Annolied of about 1080.^[5] Old Saxon thiudisk is recorded once, in a gloss on Latin Germania,^[3] and Old English þēodisc means "gentile", and as a noun "language", in the Old English translation of Boethius.^[6][5] ONW records the Old Dutch word only in Latin contexts, as ⟨theodisco⟩ at Saint-Riquier in 831, and enters *thiudisk after the FEW as the source of Old French tiois.^[7]

Competing analyses

EWA argues that nothing speaks for an inherited form in Proto-Germanic or in Proto-West Germanic.^[5] It takes early Old High German *þiudisk, like the Old English word, for a loan translation, probably of Latin gentilis, and explains the Gothic adverb as a new formation after the word for "in the Jewish manner" in the same sentence.^[5] Since a Proto-Germanic *þiuđiska- cannot be proved, it holds that the Medieval Latin word was not inherited either, but probably an artificial formation, made when a word was needed to set the vernacular against Latin.^[5] It also rejects two other views: that the Old High German word was formed regularly in the 9th century from the Latin one, because the diphthongs ⟨eo⟩ and ⟨iu⟩ were by then separate phonemes, and that a West Frankish *þeodisk gave it by vowel harmony, for which it finds no evidence.^[5] Wiktionary and Köbler, by contrast, reconstruct the adjective for Proto-Germanic.^[2][4]

Meanings

1. of the people, popular, vernacular^[1]

Medieval Latin theodiscus means "vernacular, not Latin", while Notker uses diutisg for "German".^[5] Old Frisian used the word for "German" and "Dutch".^[8]

Reflexes

• Old English: þēodisc (“belonging to a people, gentile; as a noun, language”)^[6]
• Old Frisian: thiūdisk (“German, Dutch”)^[8]
• Old Saxon: thiudisk (“German”)^[3]
• Old Dutch: thiudisk (“vernacular”)^[7]
• Old High German: diutisc (“German”)^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *þiudisk
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *þiudiskaz
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. thiudisk
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. diutisk
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. diutisc
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. s.v. þeódisc
7. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. thiudisk
8. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. thiūdisk