LL-L "Idiomatica" 2008.03.06 (05) [E]

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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc.
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.02.29 (04) [E]

 > From: Mike Morgan <mwmosaka at gmail.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.02.28 (02) [E]
> In this list I think I know the meaning of a few, but even then can never
be sure. Some are really fascinating.
> ... Thijs ...
> I could go on forever, imagining what every name means…but, is it possible
that any of you would be moved to explain online what your names really
mean?

Thijs is occuring frequently as *christian name in the Netherlands*
and as *family
name in Belgium*.

The orthography can vary: Th*ij*s, Th*y*s, Th*eij*s, Th*ey*s, T*ij*s,
T*ei*s etc.

*Y* has been used for *IJ *in old orthography (Dutch Siegenbeek orthography,
Belgian Commission orthography, ...).
Some dictionaries (as the old Winkler Prins) listed the IJ and Y mixed under
Y. Most dictionaries though list IJ as I plus J.

IJ is a diphtong. In modern Dutch *IJ *and *EI* represent the same diphtong,
but the variation in orthograhy is linked to a distiction in the past and
difficult to learn for children.
pijl and peil sound exactly the same, but
pijl means arrow
and peil means level.

As capital both I and J are written as capital:
*IJ*sland, and not *Ij*sland
while other diphtongs do not follow that rule:
as e.g. *Ou*denaarde

I guess the pronounciation of  is close to è or the phonetic epsilon +(a
little)i.
In West Flanders I hear rather é+i
In my Limburgish it is pronounced Tais (French a + i),
in English similarely.
In German Tüüs
In French Tiess

*Thyssen* (cf. the German Steel group) is most probably a soft genitive.
Old Dutch had as wel a soft as a strong genitive, so one gets family names
as e.g. Daens and Daenen for "(family) of Daen"

*Mathijs* (French Mathieu) is a longer form of Thijs.
My grandfathers name was "Pieter Mathijs Thijs".
His grandfather, mothers side, was "Pieter Mathijs Paquay"
*(The Paquay family originated from the river Jeker/Geer area separating
Limburg from Liège,*
* Paquay is a walloon form of Pasqua, Eastern, Pâques in French)*
For Mathijs: cf. the singer Johnny *Mathis*
(cf. in French *Henri Matisse*, the painter)
Cf. also *Matthew *in English, *Matthias* in German.

Van Beerkel in his "*Het nieuwste Voornamenboek*" gives (translated):
Thijs/Thys: short form of *Mattheus*, "present of Jahweh"
Corinte in "*Le nouveau guide des Prénoms*" gives similarely for Matthieu:
 "*mattaï"* gift    +    "*yâh*" for Iavé

Thijs could theoretically also refer to the former municipality of "*Thys*"
in the province of Liège at the borderline with Limburg. Thys was part of
the county of Loon before the revolution. It merged into the municipality of
"Crisnée" in 1977.
The old Limburgish name of Thys was *Tille*. Carnoy gives as etymolgy vulgar
Latin "tilius" (Latin "tilia"), or from the locative "tiliis" (rench "aux
Tilleuls", Dutch "aan de linde", "at the lime tree").
There has been a family of the lords of this village, named "*de Thys*", but
this family died out in the 15th century, and the lordship was inherited
through the female line by the "van Aarschot Schoonhoven" followed by
the "d' Eynatten".
A family "Thys", of the Herve area, active in the development of railways in
the Congo, got nobilty granted in the beginning of the 20th century, and
changed their names in "de Thys" afterwards.

There are more sites named "Thys", "Thy" etc. in Southern Belgium and in
France.
Since the name of "Thijs/Thijs/Theys" has a very high frequency in Northern
Belgium, the link with "Matheus" is much more likely than a link with a
locality.

Regards,
Roger

----------

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

Roger,

In Germany, the related surname variants Thies and Thieß are not uncommon.
They are pronounced [tʰi(ː)s] (SAMPA [t_hi(:)s]), as though spelled "Teess"
in English.

I wonder if they emanated from the Rhenish area.

I believe the original Low Saxon version of the given name is (Mathias >)
Mathies ([maˈtʰias] > [maˈtʰiːs] > [ˈmatis]). This one also serves as a
surname. Middle Saxon spelling includes Mathys, etc.

The endearing version of the first name in Low Saxon (corresponding to
English Matt and Matts) is Matten ([ˈmatn̩]), sounding a bit similar to
English "mutton." This endearing variant is the name of the hare that tries
to learn to dance: http://lowlands-l.net/groth/matten.htm

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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