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From: peter@statsci.com (Peter Schumacher)
Subject: Re: German and Germanic (was: Re: Development of Slavic Languages?
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References: <3nogf4$qtp@netnews.upenn.edu> <3pghgs$kj4@decaxp.harvard.edu> <19may199511471525@cc.weber.edu> <d8we2o.1aj@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> <3pns6e$cm <3qov2u$ot5@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> <3rm7b9$mgj@ilex.fernuni-hagen.de> <rharmsen.618.00077042@knoware.nl>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 1995 22:21:14 GMT
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rharmsen@knoware.nl (Ruud Harmsen) writes:

>In article <3rm7b9$mgj@ilex.fernuni-hagen.de> Christian.Bruecker@FernUni-Hagen.de (Christian Bruecker) writes:
>>No, these things are _not_ called "German", but "germanic".
>>As you might have seen, the German word for "German" is "deutsch",
>>and _not_ "german".
>And the Dutch word for Dutch is _not_ Duits, but Nederlands. 
>Dutch "Duits" means German, which makes the circle round.


Someone has probably already said this, but "deutsch", "Teuton", and I
would venture "Duits", come from the Germanic root "diut" = "the people".

This seems to be not uncommon. The Welsh word for "Welsh" also means "the
people". It's "cymru" or something like that.

MdE "king" and "kin" also share a root, which is sort of the same
idea.


Peter
-- 

Peter Schumacher
peter@statsci.com
