LL-L "Traditions" 2007.06.02 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  01 June 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Marcel Bas <roepstem at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2007.06.02 (02) [A/D/E/S/V]

Ingmar wrote:

> In het Nederlands: Lieveheersbeestje [liv@"he:rsbe:iS@].
> <Onze Lieve Heer> lit. Our Dear Lord is the name most used for Jesus
> Christ, in Roman Catholic circles. The Netherlands are historically a

> Calvinist Protestant country, but nowadays the "RC's" make up about 40 %
> of the population. In the South, i.e Brabant and Limburg, almost everyone
> is RC, like in Flanders. "Onzelievenheer" (with N) sounds pretty Southern

> and Catholic for the Dutch ear, we (the Protestants) would rather say
> <de Heere> (de Lord). But in <lieveheersbeestje> lady bug/beetle etc
> religion doesn't play a role, or it should be that the Catholics in the

> South (Brabant) call it Onzelieven(h)eersbeestje.

Interestingly, on the former isle of Urk -- which is commonly known as a
strongly Calvinistic community -- some people still say 'Onze Lieve Heer'
there. A friend of mine has grown up in Kampen and his mother her parents
all came from Urk (and even from the evacuated isle of Schokland). They all
referred to 'the Lord' as 'Onze Lieve Heer', which is now being labelled as
Roman Catholic.
Despite the strong influence of Protestantism on Urk, the isle has retained
quite a few old customs that date back to pre-reforation times. This friend
of mine even mentions animistic remnants, such as the common belief in
ghosts (probably of ancestors), without demonising these entities or calling
them things and beliefs from Satan. I'm not sure if these traditions and
beliefs still exist.

Best regards,

Marcel.

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From: Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2007.06.02 (02) [A/D/E/S/V]

Dear Lowlanders:
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Why are we always one step behind Our Ron? I WAS going to jump in here, Luc,
& mention the Hebrew name for ladybirds, 'Prat Moishe Rabeinu' - 'The Cattle
of Our Teacher Moses', but I shall refrain. Oh, & they call a praying mantis
'Gamal Shlomo' 'Solomon's Camel'. Oh, well!

Yrs,
Mark

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

Thanks, guys!

Mark, I wonder if some of those Hebrew names (except the one for praying
mantis probably) were inspired by European cultural and linguistic
contacts.  Of course, I'd be proven wrong if those words already existed in
Biblical and Tiberian Medieval Hebrew.

I also wonder if גדרון gidron (< gidĕrown), the Hebrew name for 'wren',* is
due to that.  Its consonant base is gdr, with -own being a well-known
derivative suffix.**  (You operate with shared consonantal "skeletons" in
Semitic languages, folks.)  This leads us to the noun גדר gader (< gâdêr)
'wall', 'fence' (from the verbal root gadar גדר) < gâdar 'to fence in'), and
its other derivative גדרה gedera (< gĕdêrâh) 'sheepfold'.  Consider this in
the light of references to fences in European words for "wre," such as
German Zaunkönig ("fence king") and Low Saxon Tuunkrüper ("fence creeper").

* At long last I got the Hebrew wren flying (
lowlands-l.net/anniversary/hebrew.php).
** Cf. mll > מלה mila (< millâh) 'word' > מלון milon (< millown)
'dictionary'

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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