<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 - 22 May 2007 - Volume 03</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_altkehdinger@freenet.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Jonny Meibohm <<a href="mailto:altkehdinger@freenet.de">
altkehdinger@freenet.de</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Review" 2007.05.20 (06) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>Beste
Ron,</span></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="q">
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span>in your interesting
posting regarding Middle Low Saxon in the Reformation era you
wrote:</span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span style="font-style: italic;"><font color="#008080"><span>>
</span><strong>Letterye</strong></font></span><font color="#008080"> refers to casting
letters for divination, perhaps runic letters on wood or bone.</font>
</div>
<div> </div></span>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span>I
had never read this word before but I didn't feel comfortable with the
connection to 'letter' (which derives from Lat. 'litterae') in a
suspiciously old heathen custom. It absurdly reminded me more at
'lottery'.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span>Just taking a
look at <strong>Harper's</strong> <strong>Online Ethym.
Dictionary</strong> I find:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span><u>quote:</u></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span>
<dt><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lottery" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">lottery</a>
</dt><dd>1567, "arrangement for a distribution of prizes by chance,"
from It. <span>lotteria,</span> from same root as O.E. <span>hlot</span> (see <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lot" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">lot</a>).
</dd></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left">
<dt><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lot" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"><strong><font color="#800020">lot</font></strong></a>
</dt><dd>O.E. <span><em>hlot</em></span> "object
(anything from dice to straw, but often a chip of wood with a name inscribed on
it) used to determine someone's share," also "what falls to a person by lot,"
from P.Gmc. <span><em>*khlutom</em></span> (cf. O.N. <span><em>hlutr</em></span> "lot, share," O.H.G. <span><em>hluz</em></span> "share of land<font color="#ff0000"><strong>,"
O.E. <span><em>hleotan</em></span> "to cast lots, to
foretell"),</strong></font> of unknown origin. The object was placed with others
in a receptacle, which was shaken, the winner being the one that fell out first.
Hence, to <span><em>cast lots.</em></span> In some cases the lots
were drawn by hand. The word was adopted from Gmc. into the Romanic languages
(cf. <span><em>lottery, lotto</em></span>). Meaning "choice
resulting from the lasting of lots" first attested c.1205. Sense of "plot of
land" is first recorded 1633 (distribution of the best property in new
settlements often determined by casting lot), that of "group, collection" is
1725, from notion of auction lots. The generalized sense of "great many" is
first attested in 1812. To <span><em>cast (one's) lot
with</em></span> another is to agree to share winnings. </dd></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span><u>unquote</u></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span><strong>KOEBLER</strong> in his <strong>Old Saxon
Dictionary</strong> says:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span><u>quote:</u></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span><b><font size="2">hlio-t-an</font></b><font size="2">* 2, as., st. V.
(2b): nhd. davontragen, aufnehmen; ne. acquire (V.),</font></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left">
<p align="left">receive (V.); Hw.: s. hlôt*; vgl. ahd. liozan* (st. V. 2b); Q.: H
(830); E.: germ.</p>
<p align="left">*hleutan, st. V., <font color="#ff0000"><strong>losen,
erlosen</strong>,</font> erlangen; s. idg. *klÐu-, *sklÐu-, *kleu-?,
*skleu-?,</p>
<p align="left"><span><u>unquote</u></span></p></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"><span>Couldn't that
be another passable bridge to <strong>'letterye'</strong>
?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left">Allerbest!</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" align="left"> </div>
<font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" face="Courier">Jonny Meibohm</font><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2">
----------<br><br>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject: Etymology<br><br>Thanks a lot, Jonny!
<br><br></font><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">>Couldn't that
be another passable bridge to <strong>'letterye'</strong>
?
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Sounds like a good idea, but I doubt it bears water.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">"Letter" was a very well established word, no longer perceived as foreign, by the Middle Saxon stage. I hardly think people would have confused
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: italic;">*</span>lotterye</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> with</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
letterye</span><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;">Throughout Eurasia and Africa, people have beeing telling fortunes and seeking spiritual guidance by means of various divining (oracle consultation) practices. Aside from "channeling" through oracle trance, predominant among these are the practices of reading the entrails of slaughtered animals and of casting stones, shards, pieces of bone or wood and to read their "messages" from the formations into which they fall.* At least in its more advanced forms, the latter practice involves symbols, be they pictures, glyphs or letter or whatever. Even if
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">letter</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> wasn't part of the original name for this in Saxon, the practice could have been renamed by that time.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">* In China, the predominant practice was to scratch glyphs in certain formations into animal bones( or tortois shells and then to apply a red-hot pointed piece of metal to a certain point on the surface. The cracks that formed were then read as oracle messages, namely the directions in which the cracks ran from glyph to glyph and whether a glyph was or was not involved. These predominantly pictographic glyps are the earliest known ancestors of the Chinese script, the so-called Oracle Bone Script (甲骨文 "shell bone writing"). We can trace this back to the Shang (商) or Yi (殷) dynasty (ca. 1600-1446 BCE), but it may be older than that. There are indications that this practice was the catalyst of the development of the Chinese writing system. I think it's safe to say that it is a variant of the casting techniques mentioned above. The fundamental premise is that non-human powers can be tapped into for guidance.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">In part I'm insisting on this because the author of the book interprets it like that too. (He calls it
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Buchstabenwerfen</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, "letter casting," if I remember correctly.) So it doesn't look as though we're talking about gambling. Because of the context in which it is mentioned it's more likely to be on a level with idol worship or worship of and communication with pagan divinities. "Letter casting" would fall into the latter category, at least according to the views of the time.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Thanks again, Jonny!</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;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">