<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 07 June 2009 - Volume 02<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Language Codes: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/codes.php">lowlands-l.net/codes.php</a></span><br>===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Paul Finlow-Bates</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L "Morphology" 2009.06.06 (03) [DE-EN]<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Ron wrote:</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>"Folks,<br><br>Here just an explanatory note from me to say that the suffix <i>-ing</i> our <i>Hinzing</i> or <i>Hanning</i> writes about above has nothing to do with the common West Germanic suffix <i>-ing ~ -ung</i> but is a diminutive suffix unique to the Low Saxon dialects of
Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania, an area that used to be predominantly Slavic speaking.<br><br>Many of you will probably remember that I mention it once in a while as a most probably Slavic-derived diminutive suffix: <i>-inka</i> > <i>-ink ~ -ing</i>."<br>
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<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>In what way does this differ from the <em>ing</em> suffix seen in Anglo-Saxon place names meaning "people or children of ..." such as Hastings (<em>Hastingas</em> - Hasta's people)Â Nottingham (<em>Snotingasham</em> - home of Snota's people)?</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Or in modern English diminuitives like "fledgling" (a little bird), "fingerling" (a little fish) etc?</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Are these ultimately of Slavic origin?</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Paul</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Derby</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">England <br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>> <br>
Subject: Morphology<br><br>Hi, Paul!<br><br>The suffixes you are talking about seem to be Germanic ones.<br><br>In the sense of "person/people of ..." "-ing" can be found in "Fleming" ~ <i>vlaming</i> and such. I don't think it has a diminutive quality, certainly no endearing one.<br>
<br>As for "-ling", it has an "l" in it of course. It may be a compound suffix, but I don't think anyone can be sure. Originally it tended to denote something small (such as in "starling" and the more recently created "fledgling" and "fingerling"), rarely in an endearing way (as in "dear" > "darling"), perhaps even in a pejorative way, such as in "underling" and "hireling".</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The suffix </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-ling</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> may be old but occurs only sporadically, such as in the German word </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Schmetterling</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> for 'butterfly', originally from today's state of Saxony, thus of Eastern Central German origin. Given its eastern origin, it may be of Slavic background and thus coincide with English "-ling". I don't know.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I am not suggesting that we should automatically assume Slavic origin when words and suffixes are unique to Germanic varieties used in formerly Slavic-speaking regions. But the </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-ink ~ -ing</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> of Mecklenburg has an overridingly endearing quality like Slavic </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-inka</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, and it is used just like it. Furthermore, its western boundary pretty much coincides with that of the former western boundary of Slavic varieties.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Seattle, USA</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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