LL-L "Etymology" 2002.12.06 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 06.DEC.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Marcel Bas <mrbas_26 at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2002.12.05 (08) [E]

Theo,

According to the etymological sources that I have read, the word 'pink'
could indeed have derived from an IE root from which also words like Welsh
'Pump' (five), 'five', Greek 'penta' (five), but also the Germanic words
'finger, vinger, Finger' have sprung.
The books also seem to agree that 'pink' must indeed be an IE fossil. No
hypothetical reason for this un-Germanic relic was given, but the
conservation of the initial _p_ could be due to the small size of the
finger; in 'little languages' people tend to replace fricatives by plosives,
such as little children do. For example, when children in Holland need to
take their vitamines, the children as well as the parents will refer to the
pills as 'pitamientjes'.

Maybe this relic was preserved by children's language?

Regards, Marcel.

>From: Theo Homan theohoman at yahoo.com
>Subject: Etymology
>
>Could you tell me something about Dutch 'pink'?
>
>There has been some interesting talking now about
>'celtic' counting in english dialects.
>This brings me to Dutch 'pink'; one of my old
>favourites.
>
>Here we go:
>Dutch 'pink' means 'little finger'.
>Origin of this word is not known [to me, that is].
>
>But always I liked to understand this word 'pink' as
>the 'fifth finger'.
>[Here you have it connected with the counting-talks.]
>
>But:
>understanding 'pink' als '5th finger',  means that I
>like to see it as an Indo-European word, meaning 'the
>fifth'.
>The final  '-ink'  may be linked to Indo-European.
>The initial  'p-' may be be linked to Indo-European.
>But combining P with INK [as a Germanic construction]
>is a trick I am not able to do.
>
>Is 'pink' an I-E fossile?
>Or is 'pink' a fossile of a language very much in the
>neighbourhood of Old-Germanic, eg. of the language of
>the Kaninefates / Canninefates [Kennemers]? And this
>is just saying that the language of these Canninefates
>was not real Germanic, shame on me!
>
>OK, let us deal with substrates: I like making
>theories about substrates, but working with substrates
>in practise always turns out to be a mess.
>Who helps me out?
>
>And: what is the first evidence of 'pink' in Dutch or
>Franconian?
>
>All questions, but no answers, unless you ...
>
>vr.gr.
>Theo Homan

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From: Global Moose Translations globalmoose at t-online.de
Subject: LL-L "Holidays" 2002.12.05 (13) [E]

Dear Ron,

Ha! I'll have you know that the Nikolaus has been very good to me. No coal,
no brimstone. So there yourself.

> P.S.: And, for your information, American banknotes are now about to go
> multicolored! So there!

Why, did the good old saint bring YOU a brand-new box of crayons??

I don't want to risk being on Santa's naughty list as well (although my
latest contributions have been blamed on Gustaaf, so I'm probably safe), so
here's a serious question: does anyone know why the devil would be called
"Old Nick", then? It does indeed seem odd that this is so close to "St.
Nicholas" that it even has our favourite linguist confused. And is there any
connection with the word "nickname"?

Gabriele Kahn

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