LL-L: "Etymology" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 03.JUN.1999 (07)

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at geocities.com>
Subject: Etymology

Dear Lowlanders,

I am wondering about the origin of what appears to be an adverbial morpheme
*_-dan_.  You seem to find it in the following words, among others:

--
Afrikaans:
vandaan 'from' (< van 'from')

Dutch:
vandaan 'from' (< van 'from')

Low Saxon (Low German):
sodannig ~ sodennig 'so', 'in such a fashion' (< so 'so') [
wodannig ~ wodennig 'how', 'in what fashion' (< wo 'how')

Danish:
sådan 'so', 'in such a fashion' (< så 'so')
hvordan 'how', 'in what fashion' (< *hvor 'how'; cf. Swedish _hur_ 'how')

Norwegian (Bokmål, Dano-Norwegian):
sådan 'so', 'in such a fashion' (< så 'so')
hvordan 'how', 'in what fashion' (< *hvor 'how'; cf. Swedish _hur_ 'how')

Swedish:
sådan 'so', 'in such a fashion' (< så 'so')

--

I have no idea if these really go back to the same origin, but I consider it
possible.

Low Franconian _-daan_ could be a case of (older) vowel lengthening, as also in
_aan_ 'on', 'to'; cf. Low Saxon lengthening before sonorants and glides _an_
[a.n] ~ [a:n] 'on', 'to', _van_ [fa.n] ~ [fa:n] (~ _von_ ~ _vun_) 'from', _all_
[?a.l] ~ [?a:l] 'all', _meist_ [ma.Is(t)] 'almost', _Dau_ [da.U] 'dew', _Land_
[la.nt] ~ [la:nt], also Stellingwerf (NL) Low Saxon _laand_ < /land/ 'land' (cf.
German _an_ [?an], _Land_ [lant], etc.).

Afrikaans/Dutch _vandaan_ may well be related to obsolete German _vondannen_
'away'.

I assume that Low Saxon _-dannig_ is derived from older _-dan_.

I had always suspected the Scandinavian forms of having been derived from Middle
Low Saxon (Middle Low German), considering also their absence in Nynorsk ("the
other, new Norwegian" based mostly on non-Danish-based dialects, as opposed to
the Danish-based Bokmål language).  This seems to be corroborated by the
following statements in the excellent Norwegian web dictionary (for both
languages) _Elektroniske ordbøker_ <http://www.dokpro.uio.no/ordboeker.html>:

"sådan pron -t, -ne (norr svádan , fra lty, der -dan er pf pt av don 'gjøre') i
faste uttr:
sånn, slik ikke øl i en s- stund (H. Ibsen) / han kritiserer kommunens
kulturpolitikk eller snarere mangel på s- / drikk og dans og s-t mer / de er
musikere, og som s-ne verdsettes de høyt"

"~dan adv (av lty wodan , av wo 'hvordan' og dan , besl med don 'gjøre') 1 på
hvilken måte, hvorledes, åssen h- gikk det med deg til eksamen? / h- redusere
skadevirkningene? 2 av hvilken beskaffenhet, hva slags (type) h- er han?"

"lty" refers to "Low German," and the gist of the above statements is that
_-dan_ appears to be an adverbial enclitic derived from Low Saxon _don_, i.e.,
_doon_ = _doun_ < /dou-/ 'to do'.  If so, this would probably mean that there is
no relationship between this and Low Franconian _-daan_.

Any comments or insights?

Thanks in advance.

Reinhard/Ron

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