<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 13 September 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;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>>
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Subject: Etymology<br><br>Draugi zemienes,<br>Draugai žemuma,<br><br>Here's a </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">marginal Lowlands word history problem.</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;">While working on the Baltic versions of the Wren story (yes, myself, in hopes of eliciting corrections) I was reminded that the Latvian word for "child" seems to have Germanic connections:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">bērns</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> (plural </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">bērni</i><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-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Lithuanian does not have a cognate but rather has </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">vaikas</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">,</span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">plural </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">vaikams</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">. Old Prussian has </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">mâlnîks</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, perhaps related to Russian </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">mal'čik</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> (мальчик) 'boy', which probably related to </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">malen'kij </i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">(маленький) 'small'.</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;">For the benefit of those of you that do not know this already, let me add that the Baltic languages (to which Estonian and Livonian do </span><b style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">not</b><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> belong) are Indo-European languages, are considered most closely related to the Slavic branch ("Balto-Slavic") but are also fairly closely related to Greek and other Hellenic language 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;">All the languages of the Baltic area have been influenced by both Middle Saxon (via the Hanseatic link) and by Scandinavian.</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;">Would you agree with my hunch that Latvian </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">bērn-</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> is a Scandinavian loan? I assume that Scots </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">bairn</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> 'child' is a Scandinavian loan, too.</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;">By the way, the Latvian masculine noun suffix </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-s</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> (as found in </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">bērns</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">) is related to Lithuanian </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-as</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-es</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-is</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, and they are related to Greek </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-os</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> and Latin </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-us</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, as well as to older Germanic </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-z</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> ~ </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-r</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, preserved in Modern Icelandic as </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">-ur</i><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-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;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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