LL-L "Names" 2003.02.20 (13) [E/Irish]

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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2003.02.20 (03) [E]


Ron wrote:

"Certainly, British people are familiar with
"Brunswick" and "Hanover" (in part because of connections with their royal
family). Should we start using "Braunschweig" and "Hannover" instead?"

This caught me totally by surprise. I have a German friend whose surname is
"Brunswicker" [sic, no diacritics] - how did this Anglicised form come
about? Surely it should be *Braunschweiger? (I naively assumed that
"Brunswick" was a genuine Low Saxon derivation, with an umlaut over the
/u/ - it had never crossed my mind that it was an Anglicisation!)

What is going on? Are there any other "Anglicised German" names like this?
*Municher, for example (D. *Munchner)? *Cologner (D. *Kolner)? or even
*Saxoner (*Sachsner)?

Go raibh maith agat
Criostóir.

----------

R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>:
Subject: Names

Criostóir, a chara,

Scríobh tú (réamhráite):

> This caught me totally by surprise. I have a German friend whose surname
is "Brunswicker"
> [sic, no diacritics] - how did this Anglicised form come about? Surely it
should be
> *Braunschweiger?

An dairire ata tu? :)  A _Braunschweiger_ is a type of sausage, a liver
sausage if I remember correctly.  Well, I guess some people have it as a
surname, and I am no one to talk, being a native "Hamburger."  Why would
your friend have to have a *German*-based surname?  Many supposedly "German"
names are in fact Lowlands Saxon (Low German), including a lot owned by
people on this list, asnd Brunswick is within the old Saxon-speaking region,
though just barely, sitting on the southern edge.

I have always assumed that English "Brunswick" comes from a medieval Saxon
version of the name.  I am not quite sure what the versions were at the
time, but I think it was _Brunswik_, apparently from Old Saxon _Bruneswic_,
probably "Brun(o)'s Bay" (after the Liudolfinger earl, father of the
"Brunonis"/"Brunonen" dynasty).

Mar sin leibh an drà sda!

Reinhard/Ron

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