LL-L "Lexicon" 2002.11.07 (02) [D/E]

Fri Nov 8 00:25:57 UTC 2002

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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Dear Lowlanders,

As many of you must have noticed by now, I am rather interested in Lowlands
Saxon (Low German) loanwords and loan expressions in other languages, and I
know that some of you share this interest.  Obviously, there is the enormous
topic of massive Middle LS influences in Scandinavian and in other languages
spoken around the Baltic Sea.  Another huge topic is that of LS loans in
("High" and Upper) German, which has been grazed through _ad nauseam_.  I am
rather keen on the lesser known and studied loan directions.  LS Loans in
English and Scots is one such direction.  One of the complications is that
it is sometimes difficult to tell if a loan is Dutch or LS, since the two
languages, especially their older dialects, have so many lexical items that
coincide.  Another area in which I am rather interested is that of LS loans
in the languages on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.  Estonian is one
such example, with large numbers of LS loans, many apparently direct loans
and others via Scandinavian (and perhaps also Finnish).  I would like to
compile a small list of LS loans in Estonian and also in Russian.  In
Russian, a complicating factor is similar to that in the cases of English
and Scots: many loans could be Dutch or LS, since Russia had special ties
with the Netherlands (especially in the 17th century) and also with
LS-speaking merchants and sailors during the Hanseatic era, especially while
there was a Hanseatic representation office (_kontor_)  in Novgorod
(mid-13th century – 1494).

While helping our own, exceptionally industrious Roman Laryushkin with the
translation of special terms today (for "Lowlands Talk":
http://www.lowlands-l.net/talk/), I chanced upon the Russian term
"ахтерштевень" (akhtershteven') 'stern-post (of a ship or boat)'.  In Modern
LS it is _Achtersteven_ ['?axt3`ste:vm=], _achter_ being 'back' or 'hind',
and _Steven_ being 'post'.  However, as often happens in such cases,
excitement soon gave way to frustration: Dutch, too, has _achtersteven_ for
the same thing: van Dale: "1) _sluitstuk van achteren aan de romp van een
schip_, 2) _het achterste gedeelte van een schip_, 3) _[scherts.]
zitvlak_" -- hence the very same meanings, including the jocular derivation
for what you might call _butt_ in the USA and _bum_ in the rest of the
English-speaking world.  Also, as many of us are aware, Russia was heavily
into Dutch shipbuilding under Peter I the Great (1672-1725):

<quote>
Visible from the hilltop estate, about two miles away, lay the German
Quarter. There, Peter found men who could teach him things he wanted to
know, as he was intelligent and eager for knowledge. From the age of twelve,
with the help of skilled craftsmen at the German Quarters he began to learn
trades. Peter hired the Dutchman Franz Timmerman as his tutor. One day, as
Peter and Timmerman were exploring the outbuildings of one of the Romanov
ancestral estates, they came across the decaying hulk of a small sailboat.
Another Dutchman, Karsten Brandt, repaired and rigged the boat and showed
Peter how to handle it. He took Peter to a large lake some 50 miles from
Moscow and taught him how to sail. This was the beginning of his lifelong
fascination with ships and the sea.
</quote>
http://ursulashistory.tripod.com/

Of course, the names of the mentioned "Dutchmen" could just as well have
been LS (though _Timmerman_, 'carpenter', would these days be spelled
_Timmermann_ on the German side of the border), and there is mention of the
"German Quarter."   My feeling is that at that time "Dutch" and "German"
people intermingled and probably understood each other speaking their
respective Lowlands Frankish and Lowlands Saxon dialects.

What I find particularly interesting in this particular loan is the
pronunciation ...sht... rather than ...st....  Yes, some LS dialects have
this pronunciation, but I do not know for how long.  Most dialects,
certainly Northern LS ones, have the ...st...  Like so many nautical terms,
this word has also been introduced into German, where it *is* pronounced
with ...sht... by most speakers.  Does any of you have any information that
could shed more light on this?

Talking about Dutch loans, I am curious to know if there are any in
Japanese, given that the "Dutch" were the first Westerners that had
sustained contacts with Japan:

<quote>
Contact with the Dutch happened by chance in 1600, the year of the Battle of
Sekigahara, the outcome of which facilitated Ieyasu Tokugawa's establishment
of the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled until 1867. The Leifde, one of a party
of ships dispatched for exploration by the Dutch East India Company of
Rotterdam, drifted ashore at Bungo-usuki and two members of the crew,
Englishman William Adams (1564-1620) and Dutchman Jan Joosten (?-1623) were
employed by Ieyasu to assist in the establishment of the Dutch factory at
Hirado, Nagasaki.
The Tokugawa shogunate, under the rule of the third shogun Iemitsu (ruled
1623-51), controlled trade and prohibited the propagation of Christianity.
The government enacted a strict policy of isolation from the rest of the
world, maintaining trade with China, Manchuria, Korea, the Ryukyu islands
and only one Western nation, Holland. The Dutch factory was moved from
Hirado to Dejima in Nagasaki. The director of the Dutch East India Company's
(Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, VOC) factory in Japan, Capitaõ (a name
of Portuguese origin) was obliged to have an audience with the shogun in Edo
and to submit a report on news of the world known as Oranda fusetsugaki
(nieuws or novos). This was the only ray of light to pierce the black box
which was the isolated nation of Japan.
</quote>
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla64/036-101e.htm

Although the Dutch were confined to certain living quarters at that time,
were thus isolated from the general Japanese population, Dutch learning made
quite some impression on learned Japanese of that time, beginning a period
in which for instance Western Medicine was studied from what has been
reported were "Dutch" books, and some Japanese ended up learning to read
"Dutch" for this purpose (though I have heard rumors that some of those
texts were "German," whatever that may mean).  We would then expect early
Dutch loans in the area of medicine.  I know of apparently more recent
*German* loans in that area (e.g., _(Kranken-/Patienten-)Karte_ > _(kanzya
no) karute_ ([患者の]カルテ)  '(patient's) chart'), not of Dutch ones.  Does any
of you know more about this?

Any input would be appreciated.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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