LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 18.AUG.2000 (05) [E]

[R. F. Hahn]

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From: niels.winther at dfds.dk
Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 17.AUG.2000 (02) [E/LS]

Ron wrote:
 _Moin!_ now appears to be well on its way toward becoming a
 generally used Low Saxon/Low German salutation,
 i.e., also in dialects in which _moi_ is not used otherwise.
 Technically speaking, it ought to be written _Moien!_.


_Moin!_ is also the standard greeting in South Jutish,
used at all times of the day.

regards

Niels

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From: Kent Randau [kentr at tripnet.se]
Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 18.AUG.2000 (01) [D/E/Danish/Norwegian]

At 08:30 -0700 2000-08-18, Lowlands-L wrote:
>
>----------
>
>From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
>Subject: Etymology
>
>David Strømmen skrev:
>
>>  I grew up speaking Norwegian and heard from my mother's side
>>Danish > (which Norwegian speakers can understand fairly well-men
>>de taler som om > de hadde kartoffeler i halsen).
>
>Dette "de taler som om de hadde kartoffeler i halsen" henviser til "Norwegian
>speakers", ikke til "my mother's [Danish-speaking] side". Er det rigtigt?  ;)
>
>Hilsen,
>Reinhard/Ron

David must mean the Danish. Sometimes Swedish people we refer to
Danish people as speaking with porridge in their throats... (My
apologies to the Danes on this list)

Unfortunately the difference in pronunciation makes a lot of Swedes
consider Danish impossible to understand.

And although Danish and Swedish are more closely related
linguistically, most Swedes consider Norwegian easier to understand
(because of the pronunciation is more similar). I however think that
understanding Danish is just a question of patience. If you
concentrate on the similarities, not the differences is not at all
that difficult.

Best Regards
Kent Randau, Mölndal, Sweden

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Etymology

Ted wrote:

>Etymology: Middle English; Old English "cuð" , past participle of
"can"3. The "can3" entry is a bit obscure to me:

>can3 [vb past] [also double past c(o)uth] (14-16c.) culd etc (16-17c.)
(verse) did (14-18c.): "to Parys can he ga" [originally a substitution
for Middle English "gan", past tense of "gin" (auxiliary verb).<

I interpret this as follows:

"can" was originally the past tense of the OE verb "cunnan". When "can"
became the present tense, a new past "cuthe" was created, in the ME period
becoming "couth/coud(e)" and eventually "could" by analogy with
"should/would". There were of course many different spellings. ME "gin",
past "gan", derives from OE "beginnan" and/or "onginnan", "begin". "Gan" was
used in poetry to mean "did", and "can" came to be used in the same way.

"Couth" as a positive human attribute seems originally to have had the same
meaning as NHG "bekannt" in the sense "well-known".

"Canny" may derive from the same source. In Scotland it means (I
believe)something like "shrewd", and standard BE knows and uses it in that
sense in relation to the people of that country - "a canny Scot". But in the
NE of England it is used as general term of approbation - "good, nice".

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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