LL-L "Etymology" 2007.10.22 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  22 October 2007 - Volume 05
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: "Etymology"

Beste Heather,

You wrote:
>
> Oh dear! yet another possible lead: we have direct evidence of Flemish
> immigrants in this very place. A rent roll of 1477 detailing the rents
> of Ruggehale (as the estate was known then) has Flemynges Heath and
> Flemynges Wood in Wichenford!
>
> We are not exactly sure at present where these were but we have
> located another document about the lease of Fleming's wood in the
> Nottinghamshire archives and we hope to go and read this one soon. If
> we are lucky it might give us identifying detail.
>
> So Yes we could be looking at what look like connected names Rugge /
> Rugg's Place / Ridgend/ Pugh's Rough when in fact they are just
> co-incidentally similar.

Some more food for thought:

   * http://homepages.wmich.edu/~rudged/gen/surname.html<http://homepages.wmich.edu/%7Erudged/gen/surname.html>:
meaning of
     the "Rudge" surname
   * maybe the presence nearby of sizeable communities of Flemings can
     account for the different pronunciation of "Rugg" with a hard "g"
     (instead of "Rudge")
   * another place not too far from "Rugg's Place" is called "The Rugg"
     (in Leominster)...next to a river, my first thought went to "a
     ridge", but further inspection showed that "The Rugg" is not
     located on a steep bank, so maybe it's better to connect this one
     to "a rough"?
   * the historical center of West-Flemish town Avelgem is (now) a
     little hamlet, called "Rugge", on the left bank of river
     Scheldt...the difference in altitude with the river is only 3 m,
     but by Flemish standards this is already noteworthy
   * Flemish surnames "Rug", "Rüegg" and "Rugg" are attested...< Rutger
     (Germanic name)
   * Rutger made me think of "Rötgen", which is common German for a
     clearing in the woods, so this would match the original meaning of
     "the Rugge" perfectly ...problem would be how to explain this
     transformation phonologically...the verb is "reuten" (G), "rooien"
     (D) and "to rid" (E)...Old English has "royd" for a clearing...now
     if only you would have a diminutive suffix "ken", like we have in
     Brabantish, then we could bridge the gap...but I guess that's not
     the case?...not even in Old English???...for clarity: "little
     royd" would become "ro(e)ike" or "rukke" in Brabantish...or maybe
     the Flemish immigrants introduced this suffix? (cf. mannequin,
     ?larrikin...)

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

----------

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

Wow, Luc! I bet the Heather will pet you for this, you lucky devilkin!

Be it's native or Dutch-inspired, by Middle English times the diminutive
suffix -kin was quite autonomous, was even added to proper names, such as
Jankin (Jack), Malkin (Malcolm), Perkin (Percy? Peter?), Simkin (Simon), Dickin
~ Dicken (Richard), Watkin (Walter?) and Wilkin (William). These survived in
surnames: Jenkins, Malkins, Perkins, Simkins, Dickens, Watkins and Wilkins
respectively.

Nouns in which this suffix survives include "bodkin," "firkin," "napkin,"
"pumpkin," "catkin" ... In Middle English and Early Modern English times
there were far more of those, such as boykin, devilkin, godkin, ladykin, *
glenikin*, *headikin*, *handikin* ... Some may be of Dutch origin, such as
manikin, gherkin and bumpkin. (Sometimes I feel that Lowlands relations were
closer then than they were lately.)

Interestingly, though, in English as in related languages, this suffix came
in with a vengeance at the "Middle ..." stage, in German somewhat
earlier (...hen
> ...chen).  It probably developed from "kin" and equivalents. "Classifier ~
approximative ~ diminutive" again!  It seems to be a Eurasian thing.
Perhaps the origin was in seeing for instance a small boy as a miniature
boy, thus a boy-type and boy-like creature, a subcategory, "almost a boy,"
perhaps.

I mentioned at an earlier occasion that similar things can be observed in
Altaic all the way into China. This also applies to Uralic, such as in the
case of Finnish -(i)nen, originally apparently "of the class/sort/kin", e.g
.,

   - puunen (wood+nen) "wood-type" = wooden
   - lasinen (glass+nen) "glass-type" = made of glass
   - Korhonen (deaf+nen) "of the Deaf Man's kin(d)" surname
   - Jokinen (river+nen) "of the River Dweller's kin(d)" surname
   - Suomalainen (Finn+person+nen) "of the Finnish type/way" = Finnish
   - Saksalainen (German+person+nen) "of the German type/way" = German
   (originally "Saxon")
   - lintunen (bird+nen) birdy
   - kirjanen (book+nen) booklet
   - kalanen (fish+nen) little fishy
   - veikkonen (veikka = friend+nen) buddy, matey

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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