LL-L: "Kinship" LOWLANDS-L, 07.APR.2001 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 07.APR.2001 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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  A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Kinship" LOWLANDS-L, 05.APR.2001 (06) [E]

A chairde,

Once again, I reply with the alacrity of a salty
snail. I apologise, and I hope I haven't kept the
discussion up in my lethargy.

Ron wrote:

> In which of the following context(s) do you use
"our" > before a name?

> (1) in all contexts

> (2) when talking about a member of one's own family
> to someone who is not a member of the same family

> (3) when talking to a member of one's own family
> about another member of one's own family

> (4) when addressing the relative whose name is >
preceded by "our"?

Typically, option (3). It seems to form some sort of
differential indicator rather than a true possessive:
i.e., "our Chris [as opposed to another Chris]". But
it's also something of a dimunitive - dimunitive is
inaccurate, perhaps a term of endearment - used in the
vocative: "Aaz aah Krissi dhenn?" ["How's our
Chrissie, then?" used to the subject, the "Chris" in
question].

It is not a possessive term but rather a function used
to reassert kinship and belonging.

Go raibh maith agaibh,

Críostóir.

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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Kinship" LOWLANDS-L, 05.APR.2001 (07) [E]

A chairde,

Ron wrote:

> * I do not know if there is a Saxon past in
> Críostóir's area.

Located at the intersection between a number of
culture areas, the Derby-Nottingham area of the
Midlands of England has had a number of "pasts".

Stefan is probably better versed than I on the
historical sociolinguistics of my region but so far as
I can ascertain it was (to keep the subject to
Germanic languages) firstly Mercian (which I think is
a variety of Anglo-Saxon but I'm unsure), heavily
influenced by Northumbrian; secondly, Dano-Norse (from
which I hold most of the local language derives); and,
finally, East Midlands English in the Modern English
period (i.e., post-1500). As I think Marco pointed
out, however, Long Eaton English (the particular form
I speak) shares a cognate with Zeeuws (L.E.E. "senn"
[self] and "selven"); the area has long been a trading
terminus and its low midland location and orientation
toward the North Sea (and presumably out to Zeeland,
Denmark and the Netherlands proper) means that it has
undoubtedly absorbed many "continental" terms,
probably from merchants (although I can't for the life
of me understand how a bourgeois professional language
could spawn loan-words of such a fundamental sort
[i.e., self] with a proletarian counterpart).

There was also enormous migration of Frisians into the
area judging by place-name evidence and it seems
certain that that group too enriched the language. How
exactly, though, I don't know... help?

Go raibh maith agaibh,

Críostóir.

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