LL-L "Etymology" 2005.04.17 (03) [E]

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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2005.04.16 (03) [E]


Ron wrote: "...By the way, these loans tend to be presented as
"German" in Poland, just as Low Saxon loans in Estonian (also
super-interesting!) are traditionally referred to as German."

Interestingly, when I visited Finland a year or so back, looking through my
phrase book I noticed that the Finnish for "German" is "Saksaa"...

Paul

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

Paul (above_:

> Interestingly, when I visited Finland a year or so back, looking through
> my phrase book I noticed that the Finnish for "German" is "Saksaa"...

Indeed, or rather _Saksa_ for the country and _saksalainen_ (pl.
_saksalaiset_) for the people, similarly Estonian _Saksamaa_ ("German+land")
for the country and _saksalane_ (pl. _saksalased_) or _Saksa_ for the
people.

People tended to name the non-Scandinavian Germanic peoples by generalizing
the names of the people with which they had contacts.  Hence non-Italian
Romance names for Germany and Germans being based on Allemanns (e.g., French
_Allemagne_, _allemand_, Catalan _Alemanya_, _alemany_, Castilian
_Alemania_, _alemán_, Portuguese _Alemanha_, _alemão_).

However, probably artificially, Finnish and Estonian later came to
distinguish "Germany" from "Saxony": Finnish _Saksi_, Estonian _Saksimaa_,
and "Saxon": Finnish _saksilainen_ (pl. _saksilaiset_), Estonian _saks(i)_,
_saksilane_ (pl. _saksilased_).  All it took was changing one vowel.  (I
don't know if the average speaker of these languages makes mental
connections between these.) And _German(ic)_ required the creation of
another loanword: Finnish _germaaninen_, Estonian _germaani_.

Similarly, Romance languages created words for "Allemannic" (e.g., French
_alémanique_, Castilian _alemánico_).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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