LL-L "Place names" 2000.10.20 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 20.OCT.2001 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk
Subject: "Camp" in Scots

Greetings all!

On a promontory called Burdon Ness in Scotland, where the Firth of Tay
meets open sea, is an area of land called Barry Camp.

(This came to my notice as the location of the earliest known case of
the horse disease called "Grass Sickness" in Britain, recorded in the
early years of the 20th century).

Looking it up on the map, I became puzzled by the word "Camp" in the
name. There is no obvious association with the sense of military camp,
camping-ground, tents, etc.

Nearby is another area of land called Buddon Camp, at the Western end of
Buddon Ness.

 From the map, the whole promontory looks like a large rather flat area
of rough pasture and sand dunes, and neither Barry Camp nor Buddon Camp
seem to have any special features.

So I began to wonder if there was a Scots sense of "Camp", with a
meaning somehow cognate to field/moor/pasture ...

The Concise Scots Dictionary gives no such meaning of "Camp". I
speculated that there might be a relationship with French "Champ", and
indeed the CSD gives a meaning for the noun "champ": "A stretch of muddy
trodden ground", but this may be derived from the verb "champ":
"trample, crush, pound, mash." [CSD], which does not seem to be what's
wanted.

So can anyone throw light on this?

Or is there simply some historical link with "camp" in the ordinary or
military sense (e.g. going back to Napoleon's time)?
With thanks, and best wishes to all,
Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
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Date: 20-Oct-01                                       Time: 17:34:11
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Place names

Good to hear from you again (above), Ted!

I was surprised and thrilled to hear about those Scottish place names
containing _camp_.  _Kamp_ occurs in numerous North German place names,
and I assume the two are related (would also have the same or a very
similar pronunciation as _camp_ pronounced with a Scottish "accent").
For instance, one of my aunts lived in Steenkamp (German pronunciation
['Ste:nkamp] ~ ['Ste:Nkamp]), and my mother once worked in Hochkamp
(German pronunciation ['ho:xkamp]), both parts of Hamburg, and there are
more such place names in Hamburg alone, many more throughout Northern
Germany, assumedly also in the Netherlands.  These two are Low Saxon
(Low German) names that did not undergo the usual process of getting
translated partially or fully into German.  They are derivations from
Low Saxon _Steenkamp_ ['stE.INka.mp] 'Stone Field' and _Hochkamp_
['ho:xka.mp] "High Field' (more accurately spelled _Hoogkamp_, e.g., _de
hoge ['ho:ge] Kamp_ 'the high-lying field').

The noun _Kamp_ can still be used in Modern Low Saxon, denoting 'piece
of soil', 'ground', 'area', 'field', 'paddock', etc., although these
days it seems to be archaic in most dialects and mostly survives in
place names and in certain expressions, such as _Kösters Kamp_
"verger's/sexton's field" = 'churchyard', 'cemetery'.  Dutch and
Afrikaans, too, use the noun _kamp_ in this sense (besides the sense of
English "camp").  I have always assumed that the word is a derivation
from Latin _campus_ (/kamp+us/) 'field', as is English _camp_.

I assume that _camp_ in Scottish place names is a cognate of the above
and does not survive as an independent noun in Modern Scots dialects.
Scots has the verb _camp_ 'to fight', 'to struggle' (as does Early
Modern English) and the related noun _kemp_ 'champion fighter (in
man-to-man combat)', derived from Old English _campian_ and _cempa_
respectively, cf. e.g., German _kämpfen_ and _Kämpe_ (< Saxon?)
respectively, and also the noun _Kampf_ 'fight', 'struggle', 'battle'.
In _The Concise Scots Dictionary_ it is said that _kemp_ 'champion
fighter' occurs "latterly only in ballades and place-names."  The
above-mentioned words related to fighting apparently do go back to the
same source as those related to place -- "battle field," etc.  Thus, I
would guess that _camp_ and _kemp_ in Scottish place names is derived
from words denoting fields or places and have no direct link with
fighters, unless they specifically referred to battle grounds/fields.

By the way, the Modern Low Saxon dialects with which I am familiar do
not have the expected verb *_kämpen_ ~ *_kempen_ 'to fight', using verbs
like _strieden_ or _fechten_ instead, similarly the noun _Stried_ for
the noun 'fight' or 'combat' instead of expected *_Kamp_, while Dutch
still has _kampen_ 'to fight' and _kamp_ 'combat'.  Also, Scandinavian
has cognates, e.g., Danish _kæmpe_ 'to fight' and _kamp_ 'fight',
'combat', which I assume to have begun as Middle Low Saxon loans
(<*_kämpen_ and _kamp_).  I wonder if in Low Saxon the noun and with it
the verb fell into disuse because of the noun _Kamp_ 'piece of soil',
'ground', 'area', 'field', 'paddock', etc.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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