LL-L "Etymology" 2009.06.14 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 14 June 2009 - Volume 01
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From: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
 Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.06.13 (07) [EN]

 To Ron Re Sanskrit Maha: Ach mein Himmel!. Jacqueline

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From: M.-L. Lessing <marless at gmx.de>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.06.13 (08) [EN]

Hello Reinhard,

my parents, especially my mother (Elbmärscher Platt) often used the
adjective "resch" to characterize a brusque, energetic, short-spoken person:
"Sie hat so eine resche Art", "Sie war schon in ihrer Jugend eine spröde,
resche Person, aber bildschön...". It was mostly used for women (perhaps men
were welcome to be resch, but women weren't :-)), but not always in a
derogatory sense, sometimes with a certain appreciation. It seems this word
is a close relative of "risch", or maybe just another way of spelling.

Hartlich!

Marlou

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From: Mike Morgan <mwmosaka at gmail.com>
 Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.06.13 (07) [EN]

First off, this same /mahā-/ also finds its place in महाराष्ट्र
 MahārāSTra 'Maharashtra' -- literally 'greaｔ country', the Indian
state of which Mumbai (aka Bombay) is the capital.

Second, a few additions/modifications to the dicussion of the secodn
element of हिमालय /Himālaya/, meaning 'place (or if you wish to sound
high-falutin' 'abode') of snow'.

The हिम- /him-/ as noted is the Sanskritic root /him-/ 'snow' and the
/-ālaya/ is a common Sanskritic lexical suffix meaning 'place of'. In
addtion to महालय /mahālaya/ 'great place' and महाभारत /Mahābhārat/
literally 'Great Bharat (a word which now translates as India)' which
R/R cites, are also (to name but a few): पुस्तकालय /pustakālaya/
'library' from पुस्तक /pustak/ 'book'; भोजनालय /bhojanālaya/
'cafeteria' from भोजन /bhojan/ 'dinner'; कार्यालय /kāryālaya/ 'office'
from कार्य /kārya/ 'work'... and hundreds of others in common
circulation.

As for Nepali हिमल /himal/ which R/R also cites, this is also a
Sanskritism (the Nepali for 'snow' is हिउँ /hiuM/), and is an
adjectival form, literally 'snowy'. My favorite example of the
adjectival suffix /-al/ (whose long grade /-āl/ MAY be found in
/-ālaya/??) is taken from a brand of icecream popular when I lived in
Nepal (V.S. 2035-2036); despensing with etymologies, the brand was
Shital ... reanalyzed in those less-hygenic times as an appropriate
English brand-name having a space after the /t/ and an additional /l/
;-)

mike || U C > || мика  || माईक || マイク || ሚካኤል
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
          (( Michael W Morgan, PhD ))
    to be Assistant Professor in Linguistics
Ethiopian Sign Language & Deaf Studies Program
      Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
וואָס ×œ×¢× ×’×¢×¨ אַ ×‘×œ×™× ×“×¢×¨ לעבט, אַלץ מער זעט ער.
The longer a blind man lives, the more he sees.

----------

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

Thanks, you "guys"!

Jacqueline, was that *Himmel* or *himal*?

Marlou, I have no doubt that *resch* is a dialectical variant of *risch*. In
certain words, mid and high vowels alternate according to dialect, for
instance in *bit ~ bet* 'until', 'up to', *gissen ~ gessen* 'to guess', *Ingel
~ Engel* 'angel', and *Ingelsch ~ Engelsch* 'English'.

(Is this a very old thing? Consider the English spelling and pronunciation
of "English", "England" etc.)

While maybe not perfect, "brusque" seems like a good equivalent of *risch ~
resch*, I feel.

Which leads me to a Low Saxon adjective-adverb with a similar meaning:
(French *force* > Late Middle Saxon *forsche* >) *foorsch ~ fuursch* which
is one of many Low Saxon words imported into German (where it is *forsch*).

Another such Low Saxon adjective-adverb is *basch*. I don't yet know its
etymology. From French *bas* 'low' perhaps?

As you can tell, such Low Saxon words tend to have *-sch* at the end. I
assume it is the equivalent of German *-isch and English *"-ish", originally
denoting something like "in the manner of ..." or just "like ..." or
"...-like", thus probably related to *-esc-* in Romance languages (such as
Italian *tedesco* 'German', and in English words of French provenance such
as "grotesque" and "picturesque"). In the case of *foorsch* (see above) I
assume that it came to be reanalyzed as a *-sch* word.

Other such examples:

*däänsch* 'Danish'
*franksch* 'Frankish'
*fransch *'French'
*poolsch *'Polish'
*hollandsch* 'Dutch'
*fiensch ~ füünsch* 'angry' (from *Fiend* 'fiend', 'enemy')
(*küürsch *>) *krüüsch *'picky (with food)' (from *Küür *'choice')

The old *-i-* surfaces after /s/, as in *sassisch* 'Saxon', sometimes not,
as in *freesch* (not **fresisch*) 'Frisian' and *chineesch* (not *
*chinesisch*) 'Chinese'.

In English, adjectival-adverbial "-ish" is used similarly, not only as in
"Danish", "Polish" etc., but also in words such as "peckish", "sluggish",
"selfish", "childish", "mannish", 'devilish" and "fiendish". Informally, it
remains an impromptu active lexical morpheme, as in "noonish" (around noon),
"It'll be ninish by the time he's done", "Don't I look fattish in this
dress?", "Your intro is a bit on the longish side."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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