<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 26 April 2007 - Volume 07</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_globalmoose@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Global Moose Translations <<a href="mailto:globalmoose@t-online.de">
globalmoose@t-online.de</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.04.26 (03) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I think my next-to-last post was accidentally posted twice, and the last one dropped. Here it is again:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Reinhard wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>Witch figures are still used in entertainment, especially in children's
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>entertainment, because children like to be scared, and witches rank among</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>the top scary figures. In most cases, games end with witches and wizards</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>being destroyed. I see all of this as an extension or survival of the
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>denigration of non-Christian European religions and a relic of the culture</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>of justifying their destruction. This tends to be presented in an amusing way.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Hmm,
scary perhaps, but not amusing. Certainly not to "most of us". Also, in
the past twenty years or more, witches and wizards always tend to be
the "good guys", especially in children's literature (and I'm not even
talking Harry Potter). Just think of Crestomanci, Juniper, various new
adaptations of the legend of Merlin... and there are several recent
popular series of girls' books in both Europe and the US where the
protagonists are young witches. Things have changed an awful lot since
you read Grimm's Fairy Tales as a boy!</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Also, these days, sooo
many women reaching menopause (or well before) suddenly go all esoteric
and call themselves "witches" (which of course must pain a real witch
like me)... and nobody is allowed to even grin!</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Gabriele Kahn</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
From: </span><span id="_user_globalmoose@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;"></span><span id="_user_heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
"<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>"</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"> <<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">
heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.04.26 (03) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Gabriele wrote<br> "I
think I could do without bearing thirteen children to somebody I don't
even care for, only to see nine of them die before they reach
adulthood, another crippled for life because he fell out of a tree, and
the remaining three... well, who knows."<br><br>My
favourite topic for any instant cover lesson ( when taking the place of
an absent teacher) is The Medieval Sewers of England ( or the lack
thereof ) guaranteed to have them all retching in the aisles and
thanking Goodness that they have been born into the era of hygiene,
deoderants, washing machines and possessing more than 2 sets of clothes.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I have actually taught with someone who
remembered in the 50s that some children c mid October / early November
would come to school sewn into their clothing for the winter. Goose
grease would have been plastered on chest and back; layers of newspaper
or brown paper on top: then a vest and a shirt and these got sewn up so
they could not be removed until - of course - the end of the following
May ( N'er cast a clout 'til May is out).</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Apparently by March if you stood v still, you
could watch the class heaving with lice and fleas! I can hardly bear to
imagine what the smell was like!</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">The changes wrought in the last 50 odd years have to be the most fundamental since Time began.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">And the young generation expect it all as a right!</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">your trying not to imagine</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Heather<br><br>----------<br><br>From: <span id="_user_globalmoose@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);"></span><span id="_user_heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">
"<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>"</span><span style="font-weight: normal;" class="lg"> <<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk
</a>><br>
</span>Subject: LL-L "History" 2007.04.26 (05) [E]
</p><p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ron/Reinhard wrote: <br>"In Low Saxon (Low German), the nouns <span style="font-style: italic;">Wicker</span> 'male witch', 'wizard', 'warlock', and
<span style="font-style: italic;">Wickersch(e)</span> 'female witch' clearly refer to the older system of sourcerers. Old English has <span style="font-style: italic;">wicca</span> for 'sourcerer', Old Norse
<span style="font-style: italic;">vitki</span>."<br><br>You
don't think there could be any connection between this and the name of
the supposedly Saxon tribe who settled in this area of England : the
Hwicce????</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Spooky!</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Heather<br><br>----------<br><br>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject: History<br><br>Heather,<br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
> I can hardly bear to
imagine what the smell was like!</span><br><br>I have a good idea. I have visited some countries/areas (which shall remain nameless here) with very harsh climates where conditions are/were very similar to the ones you described. (Try riding a bus there, especially an overland one for hours and days!)
<br><br>However, people that visited a couple of them more recently reported that things are very much better now, after 25 years ... which goes with your statement:<br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">> </span>
<font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The changes wrought in the last 50 odd years have to be the most fundamental since Time began.</font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">You
don't think there could be any connection between this and the name of
the supposedly Saxon tribe who settled in this area of England : the
Hwicce????</span><br><br>I doubt it, Heather. <span style="font-style: italic;">W</span> versus <span style="font-style: italic;">hw</span> makes a big difference in the older Germanic languages. <span style="font-style: italic;">
Hw</span> is related to Latin <span style="font-style: italic;">qu</span> (/kw/) and Indo-European kŭ- (> Sanskrit <span style="font-style: italic;">ku</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">ko</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">
kv</span>). Old English <span style="font-style: italic;">hwicce</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">hwæcce</span> means 'case', 'box', 'chest', 'container'. The ethnonym Hwecce could just be a Germanic adaptation of a British name. (The population in the north was mostly Anglian and that in the south Saxon, but these are likely to have absorbed earlier British and remainder Roman populations after the fall of this once strong Roman colony.) Alternatively -- and I'm taking a wild guess here (am not aware of anyone else proposing this) --
<span style="font-style: italic;">hwicce</span> 'case' may actually be related to it in the sense of "surrounded," "encircled," "enveloped," "enfolded," etc., if we consider the possibility of this word being related to Sanskrit कुज़्
<span style="font-style: italic;">kuz</span> ~ कुस् <span style="font-style: italic;">kus</span> ~ कुष् <span style="font-style: italic;">kuṣ</span> 'encircle', 'envelop', 'enfold', 'embrace'. (The Hwicces' kingdom was a fairly small area surrounded by Anglian- and Saxon-dominated regions.)
<br></p><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">