Palatschinke(n)

[Peter A. McGraw]

I don't know whether there has been an article devoted specifically to
Palatschinken, but the dictionary evidence leaves it unclear whether folk
etymology was involved in the borrowing of Hungarian palacsinta into German
as Palatschinke.  Peter Richardson and I once exchanged recollections of
the first time we saw "Palatschinken" on an Austrian menu.  Both our first
thoughts had been that it must be some kind of ham (Schinken), and I'm sure
many other Americans have made the same spontaneous folk etymology.

Kluge (Etymologisches Woerterbuch, 20. Auflage), after tracing the
Hungarian form from Latin placenta via Rumanian placinta (diacritics over
both a's), notes that Ruthenian placynta (hacek over the c) and Austrian
Palatschinke both derive from the Hungarian form and says the ending of the
German word may derive from the Slavic diminutive -inka.  He doesn't
mention that the Czech form is palacinka (hacek over the c).  Presumably
the folk etymology could have occurred in Czech, which then became the
source of the German borrowing.

The fact that to my knowledge Palatschinken is always used in the plural on
restaurant menus hints at a possible folk etymological association with
Schinken.  On the other hand, it's die Palatschinke but der Schinken, which
would tend to work against a confusion between the two.

Peter Mc.

--On Saturday, February 9, 2002 10:52 PM -0500 Mark A Mandel
<mam at THEWORLD.COM> wrote:

>         [David Bergdahl]
> #>Barry writes that the OED has 1929 for "palatschinken."
> #>
> #>This spelling represents a folk etymology: ... it has nothing to do with
> #>ham (Ger. "schinken"), being a crepes filled with
> #>apricot and served with sour cream
>
>         [Douglas Wilson]
> #Is it thought/proposed then that when the Hungarian "palacsinta" was
> #adopted into German it became "Palatschinke" rather than "Palatschinte"
> so #that its plural would resemble "Schinken"?
>
> I (also?) felt dubious of David B's hypothesis of folk etymology, though
> for a less-informed reason. <tsch> is the normal German transcription of
> the affricate represented by Hungarian <cs> and English <ch>, as in
> "Deutsch". I *think* that it is rare to nonexistent in syllable onset
> position in native standard German words, but common in some (southern?)
> dialects (Swiss, Austrian, Bavarian?). So I don't think that your
> average German would hear or see "Schink-" in "Palatschink-".
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
>    Linguist at Large



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu