LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 18.JAN.2001 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 18.JAN.2001 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Etymology

Dear Lowlanders,

Yesterday, Niels Winther and I discussed a possible link between Germanic
_himil_, _himmel_, _himinn_, etc., 'sky', 'heaven' and Scandinavian _him(e)_
denoting '(thin) cover', or 'being shrouded/lightly covered'.

I looked around a little more and found that apparently there is an ongoing
debate in the etymologist community about _himil_, _himmel_, _himinn_, etc.
One school of thought connects this word group with Indo-European *_{k'}em-_
'to cover' (from which they also consider German and Low Saxon _Hemd_ 'shirt'
derived, i.e., "covering").  I assume North Germanic _him(e)_ etc. belongs to
this.  The other school of thought connects _himil_, _himmel_, _himinn_, etc.
with a group of words that in Indo-Aryan means both 'stone/rock' and 'sky'
(seeing the sky as a stony or rocky construct); e.g., Sanskrit _a{s'}man_,
Iranian _asman_, etc. 'sky', 'heaven' (borrowed into many Turkic languages as
_asman_, _asuman_, etc. 'heaven', as opposed to native _gök_, _kök_, etc.
'blue', 'sky').

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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