LL-L "History" 2007.04.26 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  26 April 2007 - Volume 07

=========================================================================

From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.04.26 (03) [E]

I think my next-to-last post was accidentally posted twice, and the last one
dropped. Here it is again:

Reinhard wrote:
>Witch figures are still used in entertainment, especially in children's
>entertainment, because children like to be scared, and witches rank among
>the top scary figures. In most cases, games end with witches and wizards
>being destroyed. I see all of this as an extension or survival of the
>denigration of non-Christian European religions and a relic of the culture
>of justifying their destruction. This tends to be presented in an amusing
way.

Hmm, scary perhaps, but not amusing. Certainly not to "most of us". Also, in
the past twenty years or more, witches and wizards always tend to be the
"good guys", especially in children's literature (and I'm not even talking
Harry Potter). Just think of Crestomanci, Juniper, various new adaptations
of the legend of Merlin... and there are several recent popular series of
girls' books in both Europe and the US where the protagonists are young
witches. Things have changed an awful lot since you read Grimm's Fairy Tales
as a boy!

Also, these days, sooo many women reaching menopause (or well before)
suddenly go all esoteric and call themselves "witches" (which of course must
pain a real witch like me)... and nobody is allowed to even grin!

Gabriele Kahn

----------

From: "heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk" <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.04.26 (03) [E]

Gabriele wrote
 "I think I could do without bearing thirteen children to somebody I don't
even care for, only to see nine of them die before they reach adulthood,
another crippled for life because he fell out of a tree, and the remaining
three... well, who knows."

My favourite topic for any instant cover lesson ( when taking the place of
an absent teacher) is The Medieval Sewers of England  ( or the lack thereof
) guaranteed to have them all retching in the aisles and thanking Goodness
that they have been born into the era of hygiene, deoderants, washing
machines and possessing more than 2 sets of clothes.

I have actually taught with someone who remembered in the 50s that some
children c mid October / early November would come to school sewn into their
clothing for the winter. Goose grease would have been plastered on chest and
back; layers of newspaper or brown paper on top: then a vest and a shirt and
these got sewn up so they could not be removed until - of course - the end
of the following May ( N'er cast a clout 'til May is out).

Apparently by March if you stood v still, you could watch the class heaving
with lice and fleas! I can hardly bear to imagine what the smell was like!

The changes wrought in the last 50 odd years have to be the most fundamental
since Time began.

And the young generation expect it all as a right!

your trying not to imagine

Heather

----------

From: "heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk" <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2007.04.26 (05) [E]

Ron/Reinhard wrote:
"In Low Saxon (Low German), the nouns Wicker 'male witch', 'wizard',
'warlock', and Wickersch(e) 'female witch' clearly refer to the older system
of sourcerers. Old English has wicca for 'sourcerer', Old Norse vitki."

You don't think there could be any connection between this and the name of
the supposedly Saxon tribe who settled in this area of England : the
Hwicce????

Spooky!

Heather

----------

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

Heather,

> I can hardly bear to imagine what the smell was like!

I have a good idea.  I have visited some countries/areas (which shall remain
nameless here) with very harsh climates where conditions are/were very
similar to the ones you described.  (Try riding a bus there, especially an
overland one for hours and days!)

However, people that visited a couple of them more recently reported that
things are very much better now, after 25 years ... which goes with your
statement:

> The changes wrought in the last 50 odd years have to be the most
fundamental since Time began.

> You don't think there could be any connection between this and the name of
the supposedly Saxon tribe who settled in this area of England : the
Hwicce????

I doubt it, Heather.  W versus hw makes a big difference in the older
Germanic languages.  Hw is related to Latin qu (/kw/) and Indo-European kŭ-
(> Sanskrit ku, ko or kv). Old English hwicce and hwæcce means 'case',
'box', 'chest', 'container'.  The ethnonym Hwecce could just be a Germanic
adaptation of a British name.  (The population in the north was mostly
Anglian and that in the south Saxon, but these are likely to have absorbed
earlier British and remainder Roman populations after the fall of this once
strong Roman colony.) Alternatively -- and I'm taking a wild guess here (am
not aware of anyone else proposing this) -- hwicce 'case' may actually be
related to it in the sense of "surrounded," "encircled," "enveloped,"
"enfolded," etc., if we consider the possibility of this word being related
to Sanskrit कुज़् kuz ~ कुस् kus ~ कुष् kuṣ 'encircle', 'envelop', 'enfold',
'embrace'. (The Hwicces' kingdom was a fairly small area surrounded by
Anglian- and Saxon-dominated regions.)
Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070426/2af23bda/attachment.htm>