<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 27 June 2009 - Volume 04<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands@lowlands-l.net">lowlands@lowlands-l.net</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" lang="NL">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: History</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;">Folks,</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 wrote about the Hanseatic Steelyard in London:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL">Here is what the English Wikipedia says:</span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL"></span></div><div style="margin-left: 80px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL">The
Steelyard gave its name to a type of portable balance, consisting of a
graduated horizontal metal beam suspended on a chain. The whole balance
would be hung from a roof beam. A heavy object to be weighed, for
instance a sack of flour, would be hung on the shorter end of the beam,
while lesser but known weights would be slid along the other, longer
end, till the beam balanced. The weight of the sack could then be
calculated by multiplying the sum of the known weights by the ratio of
the distances from the beam's fulcrum.</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL"></span></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL"></span><br><span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL">The common non-English names -- German <i>Stahlhof</i>, Low Saxon <i>Stahlhoff</i>, Dutch <i>Stalhof</i>, Russian <i>Стальной двор</i>
-- refer to "yard" as "court" or "courtyard", here in the sense of
"compound". The English noun "steelyard" denotes a weighing device, in
which "yard" does not mean "courtyard". In this case it was a large
version of an ordinary steelyard balance (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steelyard_balance" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steelyard_balance</a>), German <i>Handwaage</i> or <i>Schnellwaage</i>, Low Saxon <i>Ünzner</i> or<i> Ünstel</i>, Dutch <i>unster</i>, Russian <i>безмен</i>.</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="NL">
</span><br>So it seems to me that this is either a case of misunderstanding of "yard" or a case of word play in naming the compound.<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The steelyard is, of course, a very old device. Roman steelyards from the 2nd century CE have been unearthed in Britain, and the history of the steelyard (秤) in China goes back to at least 200 BCE. But an ordinary steelyard is relatively small, as the component "yard" suggests, also the Low Saxon and Dutch terms (</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" lang="NL"><i>Ünzner</i>,<i> Ünstel</i>, <i>unster</i></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">) that seem to refer to "ounce".</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 imagine that the Hanseatic merchants' large steelyard-like device for weighing sacks, bales and the like was new to the people of London, that it was affixed high enough for ordinary people to be able see it on the other side of the compound walls, and that this gave the compound its name. (Historical descriptions talk of gates, which suggests that access to the compound was controlled.)</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;">Marlou mentions that at one point the German Wikipedia uses the name </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Stiliard</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">.* I have done some further research. (Please go to the end to find recommendations.) There are indications that </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Stiliard</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> was indeed the name and spelling used by the "Easterlings", as the resident Hanseatic people from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts and from Cologne were referred to by the English. In other words, they used the </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">English</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> name, at least at first. </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Stahlhof</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> etc. seem to have come in later, and their coinage may be due to misunderstanding or wordplay, as I said earlier.</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;">(* This spelling is interesting in that it shows that [i:] had by that time become the local English pronunciation of written "ee", previously pronounced [e:].)</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 </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Encyclopæedia Britannica</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> turns it around by saying:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="owner" type="INSERT">in the later Middle Ages, members of the Hanseatic League,
an association of north German towns, who resided at its London
establishment, known as the Steelyard (probably from Low German <em>stâlgard,</em> a courtyard).</span><br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">This would make sense only if the actual meaning of </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="owner" type="INSERT"><em>*stâlgard</em></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> were explained and if this word could be verified anywhere.</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;">Schiller-Lübben (</span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, 1881) suspect that the name </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Stâl-hof</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> (modern </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Stahlhoff</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">) has nothing to do with "steel", that the English translation Steel-yard is based on misunderstanding. They consider two possibilities:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<ol style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><li>< *<i>Stadel-hof </i>< <i>stadel </i>'(small) place', 'spot for displaying or storing wares' (diminutive of <i>stad</i>, related to English "stead")<br>
</li><li>< *<i>stalen</i> < French <i>étaler</i> < <i>estaler</i> 'to display (wares), related to English "stall" as in "market stall" -- so, "display compound" (not all that far off from Marlou's <i>Stall</i> (stable) assumption)<br>
</li></ol><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;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Recommended:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<ul style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><li>Reinhold Pauli, <i>Der Hanseatische Stahlhof in London</i>, Bremen, 1856 (German)<br><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25999/25999-h/25999-h.htm">http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25999/25999-h/25999-h.htm</a><br>
</li><li>Reingard Esser, "Germans in Early Modern Britain", in P. Panayi ed. <i>Germans in Britain since 1500</i>, London, 1998<br><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Vsw_WrvbD_UC">http://books.google.com/books?id=Vsw_WrvbD_UC</a><br>
Illustration: p. 33</li><li>Philippe Dollinger, <i>The German Hansa</i>, Stanford, 1970.<br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ljgrob">http://tinyurl.com/ljgrob</a><br></li></ul><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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