<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 - 15 July 2007 - Volume 01</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_jonny.meibohm@arcor.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">jonny</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg">
<<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.07.14 (02) [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>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>very
interesting, what you showed up here:</span></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="q">
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font color="#008080">> North
Frisian <span style="font-style: italic;">heam</span> 'hem', 'edge',
'border'</font></span></div>
<div><span><font color="#008080">> Old Saxon <span style="font-style: italic;">ham</span> 'meadow', 'nook', 'corner', 'bay' (<
*'enclosed pasture')</font> </span></div>
<div><span></span> </div></span>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>In our
neighbourhood we have some locations containing <em>-hemm</em>, like 'Hemmoor',
and I always wondered about if this were a degenerated form of
<em>'-hamm'</em>. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>But the
meaning of 'edge', 'border' even would fit better than 'enclosed meadow',
</span><span>and this could be another hint for early Frisian
influences in our region (but also a hint that in these possibly very early
times there weren't big differences between Old Saxon and Old
Frisian).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>But- things
are tricky: what about the old Frisian ending -'hem', which is supposed to have
changed to '-um' now in many location names (like in 'Midlum',
Pewsum', 'Belum'...)? Isn't it earlier interpreted as E: 'home',
['village'], G. '-heim'? So it might be one 'family': <em>'hamm',
'hemm', 'heim', 'home'</em>...- all of them denoting a certain state of
settlement, as you showed also here:</span></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="q">
<div><span><font color="#008080">>
Indo-European <span style="font-style: italic;">*kem-</span> 'to enclose with
wickerwork (> fence)'</font></span></div>
<div> </div></span>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>So at the
last 'Hamburg' could be a pleonasm: 'fortified fortress'...</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </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="Lucida Sans Unicode">Jonny Meibohm<br><br></font><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: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: Etymology</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Thanks, Jonny.</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Although there may have been confusion and overlapping of the "ham" and "home" word groups, they do come from separate sources.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>The "home" group comes from Indo-European <span style="font-style: italic;">k^ei-</span> 'to lie', 'to be settled'. Most of its Germanic heirs differ from the "ham" group's in that they have a long vowel rather than a short one:
<br><br>Old English: <span style="font-style: italic;">hām</span> (> English "home", Scots <span style="font-style: italic;">hame</span> [he:m])<br>Old Frisian: </span><span><span style="font-style: italic;">
hām</span><br>Old Saxon: <span style="font-style: italic;">hēm</span> <br><br>If <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> instances of <span style="font-style: italic;">-um</span> in Frisian place names are derived from
</span><span><span style="font-style: italic;">hām</span></span><span> "home" and not from <span style="font-style: italic;">ham</span> "ham" is another matter. I have no idea.<br><br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron
<br></span></div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">