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First, it's not Dawn's opinion, it's the source she quotes. Second Burgundian is not OHG, and does not exhibit the same spelling conventions in the recorded words, e.g. Burgundian "réda" where in the north we have LG "rad" and HG "rat" for "council". This places Burgundian with Gothic in preserving "Indo-Germanic" é, where in English we have ǽ and elsewhere á, as in High German. It is a mistake to think that Germanic languages and names in the south follow High German conventions. Frankish is more akin to Low German, Burgundian and Lombard show affinities with Gothic (e.g. preserving "ai" where High German has "ei"). But you're right, connecting Burgundian "rada" to English "rad" goes too far. But again, if Burgundian preserves the é of "réda", "rada" is not simply the feminine. Similarly, the feminine of High German rat, will not be rada. It would still be "rat". Forstemann, who doesn't distinguish between lombard, saxon, burgundian, frankish and OHG, doesn't help matters.