Wurdahuzdą: Proto-Germanic dictionary — *fleuhanąScott K. ShayWardja Presshttps://protogermanic.org/pgmc_fleuhaną
Single-entry extract from the dictionary. Cross-references to other entries point to their identifiers in the full dictionary.
More on the “instability” of interdental fricatives: Gothic þliuhan ‘flee’ and Old English flēon ‘flee’ revisitedMark J.JonesWORD5311–82002A Gothic Etymological DictionaryWinfred P.LehmannBrill1986a*plewk-to fly, flow, run; to splash, flap with hands
verbStrong class 2to fleeto escapeFrom pre-Germanic *pléwk-e/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (‘to fly, flow, run; to splash, flap with hands’), an extension of root *plew- (‘to fly, flow, run’). The initial þl- instead of fl- in Gothic 𐌸𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (þliuhan) has long been debated, due to Gothic’s antiquity. However, typologically, while the reverse is quite rare in phonological change. Jones 2002 argues that this change is a cluster-specific hypercorrection in Gothic, while Lehmann 1986a makes the case that it was also environment-specific, occurring before stems ending in -h, -hs, and *-kw (e.g., Gothic *þlahsjan (ON flæma), þlaqus (no cognates), þlaúhs (OE flyġe), and gaþlaihan (OHG flēhan), but flodus (OE flōd), flōkan (OS flōkan), and flauts (OHG flaozzan).