LL-L "Etymology" 2007.07.07 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  05 July 2007 - Volume 06

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

Hello there, Marlou! Great to hear from you, and with such interesting
questions, too.  (Wow! I didn't intend to write a song.)

> Can it be that there is a connection from "Baarle" to "parlare"?

That's an interest one. But, sorry, apparently no cigar. Parlare is supposed
to come from Late Latin parabolare 'to talk', which is based on
parabola 'parable'
('moral, allegorical tale') which is based on New Testament Greek παραβολή
parabolḗ (para 'by' + bolḗ 'casting', 'putting', 'a throw').

Manx Baarla comes from Irish Béarla (< Old Irish bélre) whose root is (*
bet-lo >) bél 'mouth' (cf. Sc. Gaelic beul, Manx beeal). Believe it or not,
this is supposed to be connected with Indo-European *aṷed- (= *awed- > *bet
-lo) from which also the following words for 'to speak' are supposed to be
derived: Old Saxon queðan, Old English cweðan, Old Frisian kwetha, kweda,
Old German kwedan, chweden, Old Norse kveða, Gothic qiþan (= kwithan) <
Germanic *kwethan (my hunch: Sanskrit *bha- as in भट- bhaT- 'to speak', भाष-
bhaS- 'to speak', भाष bhaSa 'speech', 'language', भन- bhan- 'to sound', 'to
speak', भण- bhaN- 'to call', 'to speak', भण्ड- bhaND- 'to speak', 'to
jest').

And klint is very interesting too. I can't find a trace of it in Old Saxon,
Old German, Old Frisian and Gothic. In Old English, clint is attested no
earlier than in 1300, thus close to the beginning of Middle English. It
corresponds to Danish and Swedish (thus Eastern Scandinavian) klint, as well
as Old Swedish klinter and Old Norse klettr > Orkney Scots clet ~ clett with
a similar meaning.  I wonder if the occurrence of Klint in Low Saxon
(especially in place names) can be traced back to contacts with Jutish.

Also, I assume that the English name Clinton comes from this root ("cliff
town").

Thanks again!

Reinhard/Ron
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