LL-L "Etymology" 2008.07.14 (08) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 14 July 2008 - Volume 01
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From: Lee Goldberg <leybl_goldberg at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.07.14 (07) [E]

 On the subject of "one" and "any", I've wanted to ask someone the origin of
German "kein".  Is the fact that it rhymes with "ein" accidental, or are the
two words related?  The fact that Hindi and Sanskrit structure their
negative words like 'nowhere' and 'never' and 'nothing' as interrogatives
plus 'not' (Sanskrit "na kutra api" 'not where even', "nowhere", "na kim
api" 'not what even', "nothing", Hindi "kuch nahiN" 'something not', "kabhi
nahiN" 'somewhere not', compare Russian "nikogda" 'not when', "never") make
me wonder if the initial k could be a relic of an ancient interrogative.

Lee Goldberg
Washington, DC


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

Gut-morgn, tayerer khaver Leybl!

I won't give you the actual answer, don't want to be accused of stealing
folks' thunder, but I'll give you older equivalents of German *kein*,
Yiddish קיין* keyn*, Low Saxon *keyn* (*keen*), Dutch *geen*, Afrikaans *
geen* 'no ...', 'none'.

Old German: dehein, deheinîg, neining, nihein, niheinîg, nohein, noheinîg
Middle German: kein ('any', 'no ...', 'none'!)
Old Saxon: gên, nên, nênig, nigên
Middle Saxon: neyn, gyn
Old Frisian: nânên, nên
Old English: nǽnig; nán

If nothing else, it tells you something about the timeline.

Reinhard/Ron
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