LL-L: "Names" LOWLANDS-L, 23.JAN.2000 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L Administrator]

 ========================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 23.JAN.2000 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/~sassisch/rhahn//lowlands/>
 User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 =========================================================================
 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic
 =========================================================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 =========================================================================

From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Names

Andy replied to my allusion to the tribe of Dan.

I can't get the story exactly straight from the reference works to hand but
Dan was one of the Tribes of Israel and (I think) one of the Ten Lost
Tribes. Various religious groups have believed that some of these tribes
wandered around Europe and became the ancestors of the British (and
Americans), hence one religious sect called the British Israelites, though I
think it (the sect) has more or less died out now.

"Dun" has much the same meaning as "burg" in Old Saxon - a fortified place
on a hill. (I've been reading a book on the Heliand - the Old Saxon version
of the Gospel stories in alliterative verse, adapted for a different
cultural environment. "Rome" becomes "Rumuburg".) "E-din-burgh" was actually
cited as a "dun/dan" word in the source I mentioned. The joke is, of course,
that the name is Anglo-Saxon, from Edwin (King of Northumbria 616-632) +
burg(h). Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says the form "Dunedin" is
poetical, which I take to mean "made up by poets".

I really did mean "for", not "fort". Americans say something is named "for"
someone or something (eg a child is named "for" a grandparent), in BE we say
"after".

The name "Feather" is (apparently) a corruption of "father" or an
alternative to "fletcher". I've only just found out that "feather" and
"father" are in fact (deep) cognates anyway (ie you have to dig down a long
way to find the connexion - see www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/diction.html ).

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

==================================END======================================
 * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
   to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
 ========================================================================