LL-L "Language contacts" 2003.05.03 (04) [E/French]

Sat May 3 18:54:34 UTC 2003

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L O W L A N D S - L * 03.May.2003 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: "Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc." <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: Language contacts

This morning I found this little booklet in the "Furet" bookshop in
Lille
(Rijsel), France:
Fernand Carton & Denise Poulet, Le parler du Nord Pas-de-Calais,
Dictionnaire du français régional, Paris, Bonneton, mars 2003, ISBN
2-86253-308-4, 125 pp, 12 Euro.

It's about regional French in the North, not about the dialects, but the
local dialects "Picard" and "Westvlaams", as well as old French,
influenced
vocabulary and expressions.

A random selection:

Some words with a germanic origin:

Acranquillage n. m:
outillage, ensemble des instruments de culture [..] du moyen néerlandais
"cranekyn", arbalète; au xve siècle, le cranequin est une arbalète à pied.
(comment: arbalète: kruisboog in Dutch)

Acrapé, adj.:
Sale, malpropre [..] de l'ancien picard "crape", saleté; de l'ancien
francique "skrapon", ratisser.

Albran, n.m.
mauvais sujet, garnement [...] Du haut-allemand "halberant", canard: le
"halbran" est un jeune canard sauvage

Aubette n. f.
Abri de bus, kiosque à journeaux  [..], du moyen haut-allemand "hobe",
cabane. "Hobette" figure dans un texte lillois de 1491.
(comment "aubette" is also a classic in Belgian French)

Avron n.m.
Folle avoine, dite aussi avoine de baudet [...] De l'ancien francique
"habaro", croisé avec "avoine".

Balouffe, n.f.
Grosse joue pendante.
Du germanique "leffur"

Becque n.f.
Grand fossé, canal d'évacuation [...] Du francique "beke", ruisseau

Friture, n.f.
Baraque à frites [..]
Le flamand "frituur" est sans doute emprunté au français régional du Nord.
En Wallonie on dit "friterie" comme en français commun.

Knuche n.f.
Tablette de sucre [...] Flamand: "knuusje"

Maflé, Maflu adj.
1. Qui a la figure enflée, par chaleur [...]
2. Qui a le visage gros et gras [..]
3. Essoufllé, fatigué [..]
Du moyen néerlandais "moffelen", remuer les joues, les mâchoires.

Minke n.m. (féminin en Belgique)
Halle, marché aux poissons. [...]
Mot flamand qui a été rappriché de "mijn", mien, à moi [..]
(comment: I guess to author missed the connection to "vismijn")

Some words with other origins:

Agosile n.m.
Mauvais sujet, personne suspecte [..] De l'arabe "al wazir", le ministre
(vizir). L'alquazil est un agent de police en Espagne au xvie siècle et
"agosille" a la même signification à Lille en 1625

Alambic, n.m.
Cafetière [..] de l'arabe "anbiq", appareil à destiller

Ramola, Rémola n.m.
Gros radis noir d'hiver, improprement appelé raifort. on en faisait un
sirop
avec du sucre gris [Flandre]
    Petit Jean revenant de Lille
    Riquiqui...
    Tout chargé de rémolas (chanson folklorique)
Du latin "armoracea";
italien "ramolaccio";
néerlandais "ramelas, ramenas".

For quite some expressions the author did not find the obvious link with
Flemish/Dutch.
E.g.:
Avoir bon, loc.v:
Avoir droit à quelque chose [..]
(comment: he did not find a link with: "te goed hebben")

I force myself to stop here.
Regards,

Roger

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language contacts

Today, under "Etymology," Holger Weigelt wrote:

> The idea of "mimeræren" being a French loanword might be correct. By
> historical reasons EFLS carries many french loans with it.

Yes, as you undoubtedly are aware but many other Lowlanders may not be,
the majority of Lowlands Saxon (Low German) dialects have a fairly large
number of French loanwords, for two reasons:

(1) From about the late 17th till the early 19th century, French was
considered chique and was adopted, with more or less success, in
upper-class European circles or by those Europeans who aspired to that
level or just tried to impress.  At any rate, "elegant" German came to
abound with French loanwords and phrases, though much of this was a
passing fad.  Some of it filtered "down" to "dialect"- and LS-speaking
circles.  Many of such words disappeared from German but were retained
in LS.

(2) Much or most of Northern Germany was occupied by France in the early
19th century, and during that period French and LS had direct contacts,
resulting in direct loaning of French words ("direct" in the sense of
not being loaned indirectly via German as under (1)).  Descriptions of
such contacts are descibed in the LS "novel" (memoirs?) _Ut de
Franzosentid_ by Fritz Reuter.

Of course, distinguishing type 1 loans from type 2 loans is not easy,
requiring pretty exact dating, and dating in LS is difficult because LS
appeared in writing only sporadically, and the earliest appearance of a
word in writing can at best show that a given loan is *not* a type 2
loan.

Has such a study ever been undertaken?

Might thorough integration into native morphology, such as prefixing and
suffixing, be a guide?

An example:

verdeffenderen 'to defend' (< French _défendre_; e.g. German
_verteidigen_, Dutch _verdedigen_)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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