LL-L "Etymology" 2005.09.03 (07) [E]

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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: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

I wrote earlier today under "Traditions":

> Jonny (above):
>
> > Ronni- I didn't find anyone to affirm this expression in the meaning you
> > are
> > using it. '_ulen-vlucht_' just means the flight of the owls at 
> > dusk-times.
>
> True, in most dialects, but in some of them they apparently mean both.  I
> have this in my notes, but the material I got it from is down in 
> California.
> I know _ulen-lok_ (<Ulenlock>) as well, and I believe it's prevalent 
> around
> the Lower Elbe region.

Again: "dusk" is what first comes to my mind when I hear or read 
_Ulenflucht_, and this is indeed its predominant meaning, another one being 
a known flightpath of owls, after which then roads are named.  ("Ulenflucht" 
and "Eulenflucht" are commonly occurring North German street names.)  But I 
have come across the word denoting the said gable hole.  Far in the back of 
my mind is a the voice of an open-air museum's guide saying something like 
_... Eulenloch, auch als "Eulenflucht" oder "Ulenflucht" bekannt..._. 
Furthermore, Low Saxon _Ulenflucht_ and Northern German _Eulenflucht_, the 
latter of which I assume is supposed to be a calque, can indeed be found in 
this sense on a few webpages; e.g.,


http://www3.ndr.de/ndrtv_pages_std/0,3147,OID644158_REF_SPC642880,00.html
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=89&url=http%3A//www.koelnerkarneval.de/pdf/Narrenspiegel_02_04.pdf&ei=gmUaQ7PqHYKCYZvErPwL
http://news.dialapsa.de/rubrikenmarkt/tiere/sn/381256.html?zeitung=sn

http://www.neubau24.de/html/gse_kompletthaus_f161.html

Mülheim (with our Franz's special Low Franconian song):

http://www.muelheim-ruhr.de/text_und_erlaeuterungen.html

And yet again, I basically agree with our Jonny -- incorrigible _Ulensaat_ 
("owl seed" = 'scoundrel') though he may be -- that the original and 
"correct" meaning of the word is "dusk" (i.e., the time when owls start 
taking to flight again).

I assume that the meaning "owl hole" of _Ulenflucht_ -- in place of 
_Ulenlock_ or _Ulengatt_ -- developed later, most probably due to 
misunderstanding.  Misunderstanding why?  And here thickens the plot of my 
hypothetsis:  misunderstanding because of faulty German translation due to 
the translator's insufficient understanding of Low Saxon (of which there are 
numerous examples in placename conversions).  Low Saxon _vlucht_ 
(<Flucht>) -- which ought to be written _vlugd_ if we wanted to be 
etymologically consistent in connection with _vleygen_ 'to fly' seems to 
have been misinterpreted as meaning 'refuge' by (a) German speaker(s)..

In Modern Standard German, the meaning of _Flucht_ is, by and large, clear: 
it is the noun equivalent of _flüchten_ (~ _fliehen_) 'to flee', thus 
'flight' in the sense of "escape" or "getaway."  Low Saxon can use _vlucht_ 
(<Flucht>) and _vlüchten_ (<flüchten>) in the same sense, but it has other 
means of expressing the same.  In Low Saxon, _vlucht_ (or _vlugd_) also 
means 'flight', nominal equivalent of _vleygen_ (<flegen>) 'to fly', and it 
can also mean 'flight' in the sense of 'row', 'line' or 'direction'.  (In 
some dialects it also means 'wing', where others use _vlünk_ <Flünk>.) 
Since in Modern German the semantics of _Flucht_ are less complex than they 
are in Low Saxon, I suspect that _Ulenflucht_ came to be translated in the 
sense of "owls' getaway/refuge" rather than in the original sense of "owls' 
flight."  This may well have led to it coming to mean what originally was 
_Ulenlock_ or _Ulengatt_ 'owl's hole (in a gable)'.  It could even have 
started with the German mistranslation _Eulenflucht_ that then "infected" 
some Low Saxon dialects' _Ulenflucht_.  I know this sounds a bit complex and 
far-fetched.  However, it seems quite plausible and likely to me.

Furthermore, the word _vloug_ (<Floog>) for 'flight' has now made its way 
into some Low Saxon dialects (although most dictionaries don't list it), 
used pretty much everywhere where German uses _Flug_.  I use _vloug_ only in 
the sense of '(plane) flight', use _vlucht_ (~ _vlugd_) in other contexts; 
e.g., _de vlugd vun de goys'_ 'the flight of the geese', which can also mean 
'the flightpath of the geese'.  (I don't say *_de vlugd vun Hamborg na Oslo_ 
but _de vloug vun Hamborg na Oslo_ 'the (plane) flight from Hamburg to 
Oslo'.)

I assume that _vlugd_ [flUxt] 'flight' and _vleygen_ ["flEIg=N] 'to fly' are 
analogous with _togd_ [tOxt] ~ _tugd_ ("pulling" >) 'breeding' (cf. G 
_Zucht_) and _teyen_ 'to pull', 'to breed', and with _sicht_ (~ _sigd_) 
'sight', 'view' and _sey(g)en_ 'to see'.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron


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