LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.08.15 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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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: John Duckworth <jcduckworth2003 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Language Varieties


John Feather said:

"Consider words for "man" = adult male person. In Mod Frisian "man" is
used.Two of the most common terms in OE ("were" and "guma") have become
extinct though they leave traces in "werewolf" and "bridegroom". OE also has
the words "manna", "mann/monn" and the plural "menn". "Manna" is a false
friend and potentially misleading. "Mann" is comprehensible if you're
Frisian and leave off one "n" though "man" also means "husband" to you. "

In order to demonstrate that Old English and Frisian had a common ancestry
we need to compare contemporary (or near-contemporary) forms of the same
languages.

The Old English _guma_ had a cognate in the Old Frisian _goma_ , though it
is true that other Germanic languages also had this word ( Gothic _guma_ ;
Old Norse _gumi_ ; Old High German _gomo_ ).

Old Frisian had _man_, _mon_, _mann_ and _monn_ in the senses of both (male)
man and human. Again cognate with the Old English forms. (The doubled _n_ in
any case may have been no more than a convention in Old English.)

Again Old Frisian had _wer_ in the sense of 'man', an exact equivalent of
the Old English.

John Feather also said:

"Two of the most common terms in OE ("were" and "guma") have become extinct
though they leave traces in "werewolf" and "bridegroom".
I must thank you for pointing out that _bridegroom_ contains the last
vestige of the Old English word _guma_. I had always thought that the word
had only survived in our North Country expression _by gum!_

_Bridegroom_ came from the Old English _brydguma_ (cf. Old High German
_brutgomo_ ) via the Middle English _bridegome_. In some northern Middle
English texts _brydegrome_ appears, apparently as the result of some
folk-etymology, caused by the fact that people no longer understood the
element _gome_. People must have had _grome_ in mind, modern _groom_, which
then meant something like 'male child', 'male adult'.

The origins of the word _groom_ seemed shrouded in mystery; the word only
seems to appear in Middle English. Its earlier meanings, which are now
obsolete, were 'a male child', 'a boy', 'a male adult', 'a man of low
birth', 'a male servant'. Only later did it take on the more specific
meaning of a servant who works looking after horses (its modern meaning).
The Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam Webster are unable to take it
further back than Missle English _grom_ , though the OED does suggest a
comparison with Anglo-Norman _gromet_ (a male servant or attendant), and
Anglo-Latin _gromus_ / _grometus_ in the same sense.

It is almost tempting to derive the word _groom_ from _guma_ too, in the
absence of any other likely etymology, but the _r_ is far too problematic.

Do any of the Lowlanders on the list know any other possible cognates of the
word _groom_ ? It is not, by the way, derived from the verb _to groom_,
rather vice versa: _to groom_ was derived from the noun as late as the 19th
century.

John Duckworth
Preston, UK

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