LL-L "Etymology" 2009.09.13 (04) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 13 September 2009 - Volume 04
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Draugi zemienes,
Draugai žemuma,

Here's a marginal Lowlands word history problem.

While working on the Baltic versions of the Wren story (yes, myself, in
hopes of eliciting corrections) I was reminded that the Latvian word for
"child" seems to have Germanic connections:

*bērns* (plural *bērni*)

Lithuanian does not have a cognate but rather has *vaikas*,* *plural *
vaikams*. Old Prussian has *mâlnîks*, perhaps related to Russian
*mal'čik*(мальчик) 'boy', which probably related to
*malen'kij *(маленький) 'small'.

For the benefit of those of you that do not know this already, let me add
that the Baltic languages (to which Estonian and Livonian do *not* belong)
are Indo-European languages, are considered most closely related to the
Slavic branch ("Balto-Slavic") but are also fairly closely related to Greek
and other Hellenic language varieties.

All the languages of the Baltic area have been influenced by both Middle
Saxon (via the Hanseatic link) and by Scandinavian.

Would you agree with my hunch that Latvian *bērn-* is a Scandinavian loan? I
assume that Scots *bairn* 'child' is a Scandinavian loan, too.

By the way, the Latvian masculine noun suffix *-s* (as found in *bērns*) is
related to Lithuanian *-as*, *-es* and *-is*, and they are related to Greek
*-os* and Latin *-us*, as well as to older Germanic *-z* ~ *-r*, preserved
in Modern Icelandic as *-ur*.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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