<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 October 2007 - Volume 05</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Song Contest: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/contest/">lowlands-l.net/contest/</a> (- 31 Dec. 2007)</span><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_luc.hellinckx@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Luc Hellinckx</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"> <<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">
luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></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;">
<div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Beste Heather,<br><br>You wrote:<br>><br>> Oh dear! yet another possible lead: we have direct evidence of Flemish<br>> immigrants in this very place. A rent roll of 1477 detailing the rents
<br>> of Ruggehale (as the estate was known then) has Flemynges Heath and<br>> Flemynges Wood in Wichenford!<br>><br>> We are not exactly sure at present where these were but we have<br>> located another document about the lease of Fleming's wood in the
<br>> Nottinghamshire archives and we hope to go and read this one soon. If<br>> we are lucky it might give us identifying detail.<br>><br>> So Yes we could be looking at what look like connected names Rugge /
<br>> Rugg's Place / Ridgend/ Pugh's Rough when in fact they are just<br>> co-incidentally similar.<br><br>Some more food for thought:<br><br> * <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://homepages.wmich.edu/%7Erudged/gen/surname.html" target="_blank">
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~rudged/gen/surname.html</a> : meaning of<br> the "Rudge" surname<br> * maybe the presence nearby of sizeable communities of Flemings can<br> account for the different pronunciation of "Rugg" with a hard "g"
<br> (instead of "Rudge")<br> * another place not too far from "Rugg's Place" is called "The Rugg"<br> (in Leominster)...next to a river, my first thought went to "a<br>
ridge", but further inspection showed that "The Rugg" is not<br> located on a steep bank, so maybe it's better to connect this one<br> to "a rough"?<br> * the historical center of West-Flemish town Avelgem is (now) a
<br> little hamlet, called "Rugge", on the left bank of river<br> Scheldt...the difference in altitude with the river is only 3 m,<br> but by Flemish standards this is already noteworthy<br> * Flemish surnames "Rug", "Rüegg" and "Rugg" are attested...< Rutger
<br> (Germanic name)<br> * Rutger made me think of "Rötgen", which is common German for a<br> clearing in the woods, so this would match the original meaning of<br> "the Rugge" perfectly ...problem would be how to explain this
<br> transformation phonologically...the verb is "reuten" (G), "rooien"<br> (D) and "to rid" (E)...Old English has "royd" for a clearing...now<br> if only you would have a diminutive suffix "ken", like we have in
<br> Brabantish, then we could bridge the gap...but I guess that's not<br> the case?...not even in Old English???...for clarity: "little<br> royd" would become "ro(e)ike" or "rukke" in Brabantish...or maybe
<br> the Flemish immigrants introduced this suffix? (cf. mannequin,<br> ?larrikin...)<br><br>Kind greetings,<br></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="sg"><br>Luc Hellinckx<br><br>----------<br>
<br></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <
<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: Etymology<br><br>Wow, Luc! I bet the Heather will pet you for this, you lucky devilkin!<br><br>Be it's native or Dutch-inspired, by Middle English times the diminutive suffix
<span style="font-style: italic;">-kin</span> was quite autonomous, was even added to proper names, such as <span style="font-style: italic;">Jankin</span> (Jack), <span style="font-style: italic;">Malkin</span> (Malcolm),
<span style="font-style: italic;">Perkin</span> (Percy? Peter?), <span style="font-style: italic;">Simkin</span> (Simon), <span style="font-style: italic;">Dickin ~ Dicken</span> (Richard), <span style="font-style: italic;">
Watkin </span>(Walter?) and <span style="font-style: italic;">Wilkin</span> (William). These survived in surnames: Jenkins, Malkins, Perkins, Simkins, Dickens, Watkins and Wilkins respectively.<br><br>Nouns in which this suffix survives include "bodkin,"
</span><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2">"firkin," "napkin," "pumpkin," "catkin" ... In Middle English and Early Modern English times there were far more of those, such as
<span style="font-style: italic;">boykin</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">devilkin</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">godkin</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">ladykin</span>, </font><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2">
<i>glenikin</i>, <i>headikin</i>, <i>handikin</i> ... Some may be of Dutch origin, such as manikin, gherkin and bumpkin. (Sometimes I feel that Lowlands relations were closer then than they were lately.)<br><br>Interestingly, though, in English as in related languages, this suffix came in with a vengeance at the "Middle ..." stage, in German somewhat earlier (
<span style="font-style: italic;">...hen > ...chen</span>). It probably developed from "kin" and equivalents. "Classifier ~ approximative ~ diminutive" again! It seems to be a Eurasian thing. Perhaps the origin was in seeing for instance a small boy as a miniature boy, thus a boy-type and boy-like creature, a subcategory, "almost a boy," perhaps.
<br><br>I mentioned at an earlier occasion that similar things can be observed in Altaic all the way into China. This also applies to Uralic, such as in the case of Finnish <span style="font-style: italic;">-(i)nen</span>
, originally apparently "of the class/sort/kin", e.g.,<br></font><ul style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">puu<span style="font-weight: bold;">
nen</span></span> (wood+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) "wood-type" = wooden</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">lasi</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span>(glass+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) "glass-type" = made of glass
</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">Korho<span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span> (deaf+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) "of the Deaf Man's kin(d)" surname
</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">Joki<span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span> (river+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) "of the River Dweller's kin(d)" surname
</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">Suomalai<span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span> (Finn+person+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) "of the Finnish type/way" = Finnish
</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">Saksalai<span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span> (German+person+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>
) </font><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2">"of the German type/way" = German (originally "Saxon")</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">
lintu</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">nen</span> (bird+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) birdy</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">
kirja<span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span> (book+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) booklet</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">kala
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span></span></span></span> (fish+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>
) little fishy</font></li><li><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">veikko<span style="font-weight: bold;">nen</span></span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">veikka</span>
= friend+<span style="font-style: italic;">nen</span>) buddy, matey</font></li></ul><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2">Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br></font><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" size="2">
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