Effects of A Single Nasal Consonant
Old English derives from a type of Germanic in which single */m/ had the same effect on preceding */u/ and */e/ as a nasal stop followed by another consonant. The effect occurs in other West Germanic languages, though more erratically, and sometimes in Old Norse.
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- Old Norse nema, Old High German neman : Old Frisian nima, nema, Old Saxon niman, neman : Old English niman "to take"
- Old High German gi-noman, Old Frisian nomen : Old Norse numinn, Old English numen, Old Saxon numan "taken" (past participle)
- Old High German gomo "man", Old Frisian gomo : Old Norse gumi, Old English guma, Old Saxon gumo
a-mutation was also sometimes blocked before single */n/, again with much variation among languages.
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- Old Saxon honig, -eg, Old High German hona(n)g : Old English hunig (for older -æg), Old Frisian hunig, Old Norse hunang :
But single */n/ shows no tendency to raise a preceding */e/ to */i/ in any of the old Germanic languages.
Read more about this topic: Germanic A-mutation
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