LL-L "Language politics" 2008.13.14 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 14 December 2008 - Volume 03
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From: Mike Wintzer <k9mw at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2008.13.12 (02) [E]

Hi LLs,
Thanks, Ron, learnt something new (reeg vs. rege, twiet vs. twiete).
In general: If indigenous names are re-invented with wrong spelling,
doesn't this point to just one thing: the general decline of our indigenous
languages? I'd rather see a wrongly spelled name than none at all.
Mike Wintzer

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com
Subject: Language politics

Hi, Mike, Lowlanders!

Well, I don't see anything wrong or misspelled here, assuming that Low Saxon
names got petrified in their older forms when they became loans in German.

Misspelling came in when the Sass clique started respelling things in such a
way that words resembled their German cognates, in order to make written Low
Saxon look as German as possible. Among other horrible things, this led to
the spelling *Rehg* (because of the German cognate *Reihe*) 'row'. Ouch!

On an etymological note, *Twiet(e)* appears to belong to the "two" group of
words, probably because it denotes a lane or rather an alley that connects
two streets. I assume that the word is thus best translated as "close"
within Scottish contexts.

Some streets in Greater Hamburg seem to have retained their Low Saxon names
as their only names, and in many cases it is impossible to tell if they are
old, unless you study historical records. For instance, in Neuhof
(*Neehoff*in Low Saxon) there is a small street called Ole Karkhoff
(which would be
*Alter Kirchhof or *Alter Friedhof in German, "Old Churchyard"). At the Elbe
bank in Kirchdorf (Karkdörp) you find Finkenriek which in German would have
to be **Finkenreich* "Finches' Realm".

Many names are mixtures. For instance, there is Ellernholzdamm which I
assume is derived from Low Saxon Ellernholtdamm* *"Alder Wood Dam" which
should be Erlenholzdamm in German. Then there is Hohe Schaar which must come
from *Hoge Schaar "High Foreshore" which ought to be **Hohes Vorland* in
German, but I assume that *Schaar* came to be used as a loanword in local
German. People may not even have made a connection between *Schaar* and *
Vorland*. And then there are all those names with *-brook*. Low Saxon *Brook
* (*brouk*) denotes meadow land along a stream. For instance, there is
Grasbrook with no German version. The German cognate of *Brook* is *Bruch*,
and this word can be used in the same way, as it is in local names like
Hausbruch (which would have to be *Huusbrook in Low Saxon). And there is the
nature preserve with the German name Zollenspieker, which ought to be
*Zöllenspeicher in German and *Tollenspieker in Low Saxon ("tolls
store(house)").

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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