LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 12.DEC.1999 (05) [E]

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Etymology

I wrote regarding supposed Slavic loans:

> Should the oldest attested *written* occurrence of _pracher_ in Wroclaw
> (Breslau, Poland) lead us to the conclusion that the word came from that
general
> area (which is Poland, not Ukraine)?  I think that would be a definite case of

> jumping to a conclusion.  As a general rule, German and Low Saxon words went
> eastward with the colonization of predominantly Slavic-speaking areas rather
> than Slavic words going westward (though there are a few such early loans [not

> counting Slavic loans from other countries] that reached Standard German via
> eastern dialects).  Slavic loans tended to become parts of the German or Low
> Saxon dialects that came to be created in the eastern colonies, mixtures of
> imported western and local Slavic varieties.  In the case of Low Saxon (Low
> German), this took place eastward from a rough north-south line from
> Holsteen/Holstein via Hamborg/Hamburg and Hanover.  Several loans from now
> extinct West Slavic varieties have been identified.  I think it was fairly
rare
> for such loans to spread far westward, such as the assumedly Polabian loan
> _Dö(ö)ns_ 'front room', 'parlor', 'living room' that seems to have spread a
> little westward.

Related to this seems to be the case of Mennonite Low Saxon (Plautdietsch)
_Baulj_ 'laundry basin/tub'.  Quiring* assumed that Plautdietsch and related
"Low Prussian"dialects had derived it from Polish _balia_ of the same meaning.
While this is definitely a possibility, both geographically and phonologically,
it may just as well be that Plautdietsch and the "Low Prussian" dialects of
Northern Poland had this word already as a part of the vocabulary they had
inherited from the western dialects.  Note that the cognate _Balge_ ~ _Balje_
'laundry basin/tub' exists also in Western Low Saxon dialects with the
additional meanings 'tub' (in general)', 'fodder container', 'trough', 'water
hole', 'water channel', 'ditch (usually near a dike)'.  _Balge_ ~ _Balje_ >
_Baulj_ is phonologically consistent.  Could it be a case of Polish having
borrowed this word?  (Are there any Slavic cognates? I can't find any Sorbian
cognates.)  If it is indeed a Slavic loan in Low Saxon, could the western
dialects not just as well have borrowed it from Polabian (in which,
incidentally, final -a had already become schwa)?

* Quiring, Jacob, _Die Mundarten von Chortitza in Süd-Rußland_, dissertation,
Munich, 1928.

Best regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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