LL-L "Etymology" 2008.03.16 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

=========================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L  - 16 March 2008 - Volume 01
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page.
=========================================================================

From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Ron,

You wrote:

Not only that, but -- and now hang on to your socks! -- the "hell" branch as
well! Gothic *halja*, Old Norse *hel* (and Hel, the goddess of death), Old
German *hell(i)a*, Old Saxon *hel*, *hellia*, Old Low Franconian *hella*,
Old Frisian *helle*, Old English *hell*.

At the root of all of the above is supposed to be Indo-European **k̂el-*. My
personal hunch is that this originally referred to living and hiding in
caverns, hence a connection with slopes and rocks and also with
(subterranean) hell. Furthermore, it is very well possible that English
"hole" and "hollow" belong to this.


I really like your cave-theory, even though it implies the merger of two
different PIE-roots, **k̂el-*. Still, I guess it may be possible, if only
you go back far enough in time.

Giving this topic a somewhat more Lowlandish twist, here's a list of German
words, having non-PIE-"cognates":

http://home.arcor.de/urdeutsche/index11.htm

And :-D , to your utter delight, you will see that the same author, Marcelo
Jolkesky, even mentions a Hamburger-culture, 14000 years before Big Mac was
invented:

http://home.arcor.de/urdeutsche/index8.htm

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080316/4ea65f13/attachment.htm>