LL-L "Etymology" 2009.11.23 (01) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 23 November 2009 - Volume 01
lowlands.list at gmail.com - http://lowlands-l.net/
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
===========================================

From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.11.22 (04) [EN]

There's a Belgrave in Leicestershire, England, so it could be a place-name
surname.  Local folk etymology relates the village name to a traditional
story about a giant named Bel, who decides he's going to leap on his horse
to Leicester in three bounds.

He mounts his horse, named Sorrel, at Mountsorrel.  He makes his first leap
and lands at Wanlip ("One-leap").  After his second leap he knows the next
one is make it or "Burst All", so that place is Birstall.  Then he fails on
the final leap, dies, and is buried at Belgrave, about a mile and a half
from the City centre.

The etymology is total rubbish of course, all of those names have
well-attested origins.  The four villages are also claimed to lie on a dead
straight line with the Centre, but a quick map check shows that while
Wanlip, Birstall and Belgrave more or less do, Mountsorrel is way off. Cute
story though.

Paul
Derby
England

----------

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

This reminds me of what I assume is folk etymology of the name of the city
(now a part of Hamburg) of Altona in Germany.

Founded as a fishing village in 1535, Altona was given city rights by
Denmark's King Frederik III in 1664. It played an important role as a Danish
city that could be reached from Hamburg's city walls by just a short. Altona
used to house a major Jewish community. Because Hamburg severely restricted
the number of resident Jews until 1864 (with one break: 1811-1815), most
Jews lived in Altona and worked in Hamburg which was sometimes independent
and sometimes under Prussian power.

Anyway, I have heard stories about a child or a blind person having to mark
the town's border, or Hamburg's border, or someone was to do so by throwing
something or other, and then the Low Saxon reaction was "Al to nah!" ("All
too near!"). Or was it that people used to say that Altona was "Al to nah"
from Hamburg?

Main stress is on the first syllable of the name, by the way, unlike all
those American places called Altona and Altoona that are stressed on the
second syllable. The phrase "Al to nah" has stress on the last syllable.

Anyway, does anyone know anything about these etymological theories and what
seems to be the true one?

I have also heard that the city may have been named after a brook called
Altenau (Alten-au), which would pan out stress-wise. Also, there is an
Altona Manor in Eldena, near Ludwigslust in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Altona and Eldena may well be related names.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20091123/7a6beaf4/attachment.htm>