LL-L "Etymology" 2008.03.13 (05) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 13 March 2008 - Volume 05
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Diederik,

You wrote:

Luc Wrote:
"Helling" and "hellen" (to slope) are natively not Southern Dutch; Kiliaan
(16th c.) already labelled them as typically Holl., which stood for
"Hollandish"; so I don't think my family name (attested well before Kiliaan)
has any relation to a slope. Thanks for the hint though ;-) .

 How would these words be in 'genuine' Brabantish then? I can't think of any
words with a similar meaning that sound more homely to me...


Let me tell you what we do have in store, regarding general geographic
terms:

   - nen bèrreg: anything (truly ànything) which is not flat...any
   elevation is "nen bèrreg", be it the highest hill in Southern Brabant or a
   "molehill" (so to speak) in Londerzeel, it is "nen bèrreg".
   - at the bottom of those "bergen", we have "ne zink" (or "ne
   zonk/zoenk"), compare with English "sink" (gootsteen)...it's usually the
   place where water collects
   - if farmland is located on the slope of a hill, it may be labelled
   "berg(end)-land", "bovenland", "schietland" or "hoogland" (opposite of our
   "club's" name)...traditionally, no farmer will ever use the noun "helling"
   or the verb "hellen"...instead of "hellen", he may say that "het land draagt
   af naar location X or Y", which means that (surface)-water will flow to X or
   Y
   - neither will he traditionally use words like "zuid", "west",
   "noord",  or "oost": it's "de zonnekant", "de regenkant", "de vrieskant"...

If "een helling" is short and steep, we will usually term it "nen talu"
around here (< French talus).

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
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