Expressiveness and variation: the etymology of germ. kladder ‘dirt, mud’
Expressiveness and variation: the etymology of germ. kladder ‘dirt, mud’

Summary/Abstract: Although the Germanic dialects offer very ancient vocabulary, the have long been neglected from an etymological perspective. A very old word is e.g. Germ. Kladder ‘dirt, mud’. Because of its onomatopoetic nature this word shows a considerable diversification and expansion in the Germanic languages: klatt- and klāt‑ in Low German, Middle German, Upper German next to kladd‑ only in Low German. Those words ultimately go back to a Proto-Germanic substantive *klađđō f. ‘clot, lump, mud, dirt’, leading to the well-known PIE root *gleh1‑ ‘to be greasy, to be dirty’.

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