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  • Re: An

    From Mikko@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 28 12:45:20 2024
    On 2024-04-28 09:25:14 +0000, db said:

    There is an old English use of "an" for "if". Where
    does this come from? I can't think of similar forms
    in German or Danish or Latin.

    It could be English "when". Or it could be the Swedish
    "om". But perhaps it is something else.

    --
    Mikko

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 28 22:28:20 2024
    On 28/04/2024 9:25 p.m., db wrote:
    There is an old English use of "an" for "if". Where
    does this come from? I can't think of similar forms
    in German or Danish or Latin.

    OED identifies it with "and", citing the combinations "an if" and "if
    an". I'm not sure if I can explicate the semantics of this, but that's
    what they say.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Antonio Marques@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Apr 30 13:58:51 2024
    db <[email protected]> wrote:
    On Sun, 28 Apr 2024 12:45:20 +0300, Mikko wrote:

    On 2024-04-28 09:25:14 +0000, db said:

    There is an old English use of "an" for "if". Where does this come
    from? I can't think of similar forms in German or Danish or Latin.

    It could be English "when". Or it could be the Swedish "om". But perhaps
    it is something else.

    The "om" (also in Danish) comes close and might be
    the relative of "an". M and n get confused a bit.
    I remember the name Willian used in Brazil.

    But there it's because it's not a consonant.

    I've certainly met this 'an' before, but I have no idea where. I remember thinking at the time that it read naturally, which would indicate a
    parallel to some other construct in english or other language, but without
    the actual example it's difficult to say.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From wugi@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 30 16:01:08 2024
    Op 28/04/2024 om 11:25 schreef db:
    There is an old English use of "an" for "if". Where
    does this come from? I can't think of similar forms
    in German or Danish or Latin.

    Greek, obviously.

    --
    guido wugi

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)