Etymological Notes (XI): Equivalents of the German Diphthong au in Estonian Loanwords

On the example of 18 words it is shown that in Estonian borrowings the literary German diphthong au is represented not only by au, but also by the diphthong ou or the (long or short) monophthong o. The reason for such variation can be seen in the presence of Low German phonetic substrate in the Baltic German dialect (the diphthong au was not characteristic of Middle Low German). A few new or improved etymologies are presented, incl. for the words molu vulg. 'face,' muulukas 'green strawberry (Fragaria viridis),' nodi 'sl. riches,' ploom 'plum,' vorlontskik 'good-for-nothing.' Adapted from the source document