[gothic-l] Not many "stad" in Denmark

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Hi Bertil,

>The reason for the small number of place-names ending with -stad in Denmark compared to Sweden and Norway is probably the fact that stad in Danish is "by". "By" in Swedish means village.


I found a copy of Wessén, that probably says the same thing as Hellquist. Wessén says that Swedish "stad" in the meaning of "town" (köpstad, större samhälle : huvud-, stor-, förstad o.s.v.) is regarded as a loan from Middle Low Deutsch "stat" (pl. stede), German Stadt (pl. Städte). Also in Norway the meaning "town" (by) stems from German. But the old meaning has been preserved in a word like "stadfeste", Sw "stadfästa", ON "staðfesta" = to make fixed or immoveable. Cf. English "steadfast".

The Norwegian placenames ending on -stad are thought to derive from the Viking Age and witnes of the enormous inner expansion that took place then. It was some centuries after the Viking Age that the Norwegian language came under the influence of Low German and that German words like "Stadt" were imported. The original placenames on -stad, ON -staðir, had the meaning of "primary dwelling place". Perhaps it was like that in Denmark too. But maybe Denmark had less space for inner expansion in the Viking Age; and so they went to England instead??

Best Regards
Keth



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