LL-L "History" 2008.05.22 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 22 May 2008 - Volume 01
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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2008.05.21 (02) [E]

Dear Pat,

you asked for informations about the history of _Bramel_ near Bremerhaven.

Sorry- I'm not so familiar with that part of our region, and Bramel (first
mentioned AD 1185 as 'Brameloh', meaning 'broom-grove') obviously
didn't stand out from our regional history.
Perhaps you'd like to take a look into their  German hp here:
http://www.bramel.de/ , where- with some contradictions- a continuous Saxon
settlement since AD 400 is mentioned as a possibility.

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

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From: Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2008.05.20 (02) [E]

 Dear Soenke, Jonny, Ron & All

Subject: LL-L "History"

Jonny, you mentioned:

What you said about the role of the north sea, its permanent threat and the
inhabitants' attitudes: The struggle and efforts for safe land has been one
of the main driving forces in Dithmarschen's history. Roughly at AD 700 some
inhabitants of the high, dry "Geest" started forming settlement
alliances/companionships (called "Slachten", G "Geschlechter") in order ro
reclaim the wet, low "Marsch" lands. They did so by building "Wurthen",
small man-made mounds higher than storm flood levels. Over time these
"Slachten" managed to claim the power by virtue of the fertility of their
new land, forcing the remaining people on the Geest to also form "Slachten"
to counterbalance. A "Slacht" comprised 2 to 5 rich and a substantial number
of average and poor families/clans and were the basic units when it came to
rising troops in war times.

Now is this term 'Slachten / Geslechten' not related to our Afrikaans &
Nederlands 'Geslag' = 'Generation' which I would in this case associate with
a fraternity of the same age-group, & would at least initially set a breadth
to the sense of community rather than a depth to the lineage. It must have
been a very forceful institution...These 'Wurthen', these mounds - could
they be called in some other Lowlands language or dialect 'terpen'?

& one last comment; Ron am I right in connecting the word 'Wyk' as well as
the other familiar one across the Channel, '-wich' with the Latin 'Vicus',
being the smallest community unit recognised for administrative purposes in
the Later Roman Empire? Meaning roughly 'military colony' or 'armed camp'?
Here in South Africa, our traditional military structure used the word 'wyk'
in this very way, & each was supposed to field between five & fifteen
'korps' under a korporaal, each elected to lead a 'huishoud' of not more
than a dozen men, & under the administrative charge of a single govenment
appointee & his assistant, the 'Veld Kornet'. Today 'wyk' is merely a
translation of the English 'electoral ward' - not that we use them as such
any more.

Yrs,
Mark

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

Hi, Mark!

You asked:

Now is this term 'Slachten / Geslechten' not related to our Afrikaans &
Nederlands 'Geslag' = 'Generation' which I would in this case associate with
a fraternity of the same age-group, & would at least initially set a breadth
to the sense of community rather than a depth to the lineage.

Indeed. It's only that in Germany the etymology became obscured; i.e. the
connection with *slagen* / *schlagen* 'to hit' (related to English "slay")
is no longer recognized. This accounts for spelling with "ch" instead of
etymologically correct "g". However, the nouns *Slag* [slaχ] and
*Schlag*[ʃlɑːk] 'hit' are still spelled with "g", because German
spelling is taken
as the standard, and Standard German /g/ does not become fricative (though
in North German dialects it does: *Schlag* [ʃlaχ]).

Ron am I right in connecting the word 'Wyk' as well as the other familiar
one across the Channel, '-wich' with the Latin 'Vicus', being the smallest
community unit recognised for administrative purposes in the Later Roman
Empire?

I don't know, Mark. Maybe someone else does.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron
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