Talk:einfältig
Latest comment: 6 years ago by Leasnam in topic Einfältig
Einfältig[edit]
Since there is no Proto-Germanic *-gaz in the PG *ainafalþaz, wouldn't Einfalt be the descendant and einfältig be a formation of Einfalt? Was there a word in Middle High German that would have gotten the Modern German einfältig? (something like einvalt -> einvaltic, einvaltec -> einfältig?). If none of the above is true, and it is not inherited from PG *ainafalþaz, it should be taken out. Anglish4699 (talk) 18:35, 30 September 2017 (UTC)
- There is an adjective in Middle High German: einfalt, einvalt which is a descendant of the PGmc word. Modern einfältig is not a direct descendant of this word, but it may have absorbed it or merged with it. It's appears to be a case where there are two similar words which mean the same thing, and later in history they're essentially viewed to be variants of the same word (although in retrospect we know that they aren't), and Modern German happened to settle on just one of them. Leasnam (talk) 18:53, 30 September 2017 (UTC)