LL-L "Etymology" 2009.10.23 (02) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 23 October 2009 - Volume 02
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Etymology

Dear Lowlanders,

I'm not sure if this should be "Etymology" or "Lexicon". It's really both.
("Leximology"?)

As many of you undoubtedly know, kinship terminologies are rich fields of
research for linguists, richer ones for cultural and social anthropologists.

Recently I became aware of the fact that Scots and Low Saxon more or less
share what I suspect is a part of an old kinship naming system that has been
replaced in most related languages or are only found in some of their
archaic dialects. This is a system in which more specificity is required
where nowadays we use the general labels (in this instance "nephew" and
"nice").

First of all, let me mention that English "nephew" and "nice" are derived
from Norman loanwords. "Nephew" comes from Anglo-Norman (a Romance language)
*nevou*, *neveu*, *nevew*, *nevu*, *newu*. "Niece" comes from Anglo-Norman *
nece*, *nice*, *niece*.

The interesting thing (at least to *me*) is that these words actually have
Germanic cognates (= genealogically related words)  that were used in Old
English: *nefa* (pronounced "nehva") and *nift *respectively. Old Frisian
has *neva *'nephew' and *nift* 'niece'.  Old Saxon has *nevo* for "nephew"
and *nifta* or *nichta* for 'niece'. ("ch" and "f" tended to alternate in
those days of yore.) Middle Dutch and Middle Saxon have *neve* meaning not
only 'nephew' but also 'grandson', as well as *nifte* and *nichte* meaning
not only 'niece' but also 'granddaughter'. Old German *nefe *or* neve *denotes
'nephew' or 'kinsman' and *nift(a)* denotes 'niece' or 'close female
relative'. The extension of 'kinsman' is found also in Old Norse *nefi*,
otherwise meaning 'nephew'.  (Much of this seems to have to do with what I
call "honorary kinship appellation for non-relatives.") Originally, the two
probably served as general labels for relatives of one's children's and
grandchildren's generations. (Many of the world's languages generalize in
this way outside one's own generation.) You can see this idea of "following
generation" in the case of Lithuanian *nepuotis *'grandchild', Classical
Latin *nepōt* ~ *nepōs* 'grandson' (from which we got the word "nepotism",
which, interestingly, is called *Vetternwirtschaft* "cousin economy" in
German!), Greek *νέποδες *(*n**épodes*) 'offspring' (plural), Avestan and
Old Persian *napāt *'grandson', and Sanskrit नपात् (*napāt*) 'descendant'.

(By the way, Old Irish has *nia(th)* for 'sister's son', generalized in
Modern Irish as *nia* 'nephew'. Old Irish *necht* became Modern Irish *
niacht* 'niece', and Welsh has *nith* for 'niece' -- all pretty predictable
in terms of phonological shifts.)

And now to the more specific system Scots by and large shares with Low Saxon
and possibly with certain other Lowlands varieties.

Low Saxon does not have (= has lost?) the general labels "nephew" and
"niece". You need to specify whose child you are dealing with, your
brother's or your sister's. Scots speakers, however, *can* resort to using
the surviving general labels.

*SCOTS*

Half gender-neutral: *nevoy*
Brother's child: *brither-bairn
*Sister's child: *sister-bairn*

Nephew: *nevoy*
Brother's son: *brither-son*
Sister's son: *sister**-son*

Niece: *niece
*Sister's daughter: *sister-dochter*
Brother's daughter: *brither-dochter*

*LOW SAXON* (of Northern Germany)

Half gender-neutral: --
Brother's child: *Broderkind
*Sister's child: *Süsterkind*

Nephew: -
Brother's son: *Brodersœhn*
Sister's son: *Süster**sœhn*

Niece: *--
*Brother's daughter: *Broder**dochter*
 Sister's daughter: *Süsterdochter*

As you can see, the principle is the same, but in Low Saxon there are no
general label choices as there are, for the most part, in Scots.

Those of you that are familiar with North Germanic languages will recognize
similarities to systems that require specificity on the grandparents' level
as well as on that of one's own generation; e.g.

Danish:
Nephew: *søstersøn, brodersøn *
Niece: *broderdatter, søsterdatter *

Swedish:
Nephew: *nevö: brorson, systerson
*Niece: *niece: brorsdotter, systerdotter*

Not mentioning actual names for grandparents (which I will leave for another
day).
*
*And ...

Old English:
Male:
General: *nefa*
Brother's son: *brōþorsunu*
Sister's son: *sweostor**sunu*
Female:
General: *nefene, nift*
Brother's "child"=daughter: *brōþor**bearn**
*Sister's "child"=daughter: *sweostor**bearn*

As you can see, in Old English (= proto-Saxon?) the system defaults to
neutral *-bearn* "-child" in the case of females (nieces).

And, dear Lowlander brothers and sisters, we have barely even scratched the
tip of the iceberg, leave alone embedded our Coke or Scotch glasses in its
icy gouges! The plot most definitely thickens as we go along. Much can be
discovered and revealed about the Lowlandic ancestors' kinship and gender
perceptions as we pursue this thread, if we do. And this is but a tiny, tiny
sliver of mankind's kinship and gender perception! (In sociocultural
anthropology this is the basic concept on which inheritance rules and thus
the survival of the "race" rest!)

Why, our Jewish brothers and sisters  whose presence was at the best of
times tolerated, became so confused by this goyish naming *balagan* (i.e.
mess) that in Yiddish (derived from Middle German and continued in the
largely Slavic-speaking east) the poor things ended up with a mixture of
Middle German, Slavic and Semitic kinship terminologies!  Oy, va-avoy!

Kindest of regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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