LL-L "Etymology" 2009.11.17 (03) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 17 November 2009 - Volume 03
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From: Jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.11.15 (06) [EN]

 Thanks, dear Lowlanners,

for all your answers regarding "etgroa", "etgroede" etc..

And again it has been proven: if one is searching for any special word in LS
the first thing to do is to take a look to the Westburen! Dank u wel!

Thanks, Reinhard, for that complete list of related words - fascinating!

Marcus, special thanks for your lead to the dtv-Atlas! I'll buy it tomorrow!

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm
Lower Saxony, Germany

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From: Henno Brandsma <hennobrandsma at hetnet.nl>
 Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.11.17 (02) [EN]

From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.11.16 (03) [DE-EN]

from Heather Rendall heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk

re the discussion about Nachmahd / Nahmadd
In English we have 'Aftermath' with the same meaning = ' a second cutting of
grass' . However I doubt whether the majority of English speakers know this
original meaning; rather they use it to descriobe the results of any action.
e.g. " In the aftermath of 7/11 security was tightened throughout the
county."
Â
My question is: why do you have ' Nach-' and not 'Efter- when both English
and Lowland languages seem to have retained the '-math' bit.
Â
[One of the things I like about this forum is it makes you look up word
origins you have never thought about. I have just looked up 'after' and
discovered that it has as relatives  O Fris efter  OS / OHG aftar  Du
achter  Gothic aftra etc etc back to PIE.]

Modern Dutch achter, Old german "aftar", Modern W. Frisian "efter". But also
Modern Dutch "na", WF "nei", which is related to German "nach"
and English "nigh".

So it's common Germanic.

Henno

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



Hi, Lowlanders!



Our Heather has an observation and a request:



In English we have 'Aftermath' with the same meaning = ' a second cutting of
grass' . However I doubt whether the majority of English speakers know this
original meaning; rather they use it to descriobe the results of any action.
e.g. " In the aftermath of 7/11 security was tightened throughout the
county."



My question is: why do you have ' Nach-' and not 'Efter- when both English
and Lowland languages seem to have retained the '-math' bit.



That’s a great one, Heather, one that I’ve been thinking about ever since
Luc brought up the connection.



This *na-* and *nach-* thing is related to English “nigh”. Of course you
know English “nigh” as meaning “close to”. It is also the root of “near”
which actually started off as its comparative derivation (thus *”nigher”,
which technically makes modern “nearer” a double comparative).



This is what the *Oxford English Dictionary* says about “nigh”:



[Cognate with Old Frisian *nēi*, *n**ē**[image: {imac}]* (West Frisian *nei*),
Middle Dutch *nā* (Dutch *na*), Old Saxon *nāh*, *nā* (Middle Low German *nā
*, *nae*, *nāch*), Old High German *nāh*, *nā* (Middle High German *nāch*, *
nā*, *nāhe*, German (adjective) *nah*, *nahe*, (adverb and preposition) *
nach*, now only in sense ‘after, to, towards’), Old Icelandic *ná-* (only in
compounds, as *nábúi* neighbour, *nákominn* closely related, etc.), Old
Swedish *naa-* (Swedish †*nå-*), only in compounds, Danish *na-* (only in *
nabo* neighbour), Gothic *nehw*, *nehwa*; further etymology uncertain and
disputed: perhaps < the same Indo-European base as ENOUGH *adj.*, or perhaps
< an extended form of the Indo-European base of Old Church Slavonic *na* on,
at, Russian *na* on, at, or perhaps a Germanic innovation.
  Old High German is the only example among the older languages in which a
fully developed adjectival use of the word exists along with the adverbial.
In Old English there are only a few traces of an adjectival inflection, the
word being more commonly employed either as a simple adverb, with a
dependent dative, or as the first element in compounds (the latter use
probably reinforced the development of the adjectival use): in predicative
use it may sometimes be taken as an adjective, but it is more probable that
in such cases also it is an adverb. It is not till the 14th or 15th cent.
that the attributive use becomes common.
  The original comparative of Old English *nēah* as an adverb is *nēar*(also
*nēor*, *nŷr*) NEAR *adv.*1, while the adjectival form *n[image: {emac}]arra
* became Middle English *nerr* NAR *adj.*; the Old English superlative *
nīehst*, *nīehsta* survives as NEXT *adj., adv., *and* n.* By the end of the
Middle English period phonetic changes meant that these forms were no longer
clearly perceived as related to the positive, and so new analogical
comparative and superlative forms arose (e.g. *nigher*, *nighest*), which
have been in common use ever since.
  With the rare early Middle English adverbial and prepositional forms *
nagen*, *negen* (both attested only in the Otho MS of Lagamon's *Brut*)
compare Old English *nēan* (adverb) from nearby, near, close at hand;
perhaps compare also the form *neggen* (one isolated attestation in the
Auchinleck MS of *Floris & Blauncheflur*), although this is more likely to
be a scribal error as the rhyme is with *heige*. With Middle English forms
with final *-t* perhaps compare the development of excrescent *-t* in GRAFT
*n.*1, TUFT *n.*, etc. (see further E. J. Dobson *Eng.** Pronunc.
1500-1700*(ed. 2, 1968) II. §437).
]



This is what the *Oxford English Dictionary* says:



Note that in older times “nigh” denoted not only location but also approach,
which is preserved in set phrases, such as “the end is nigh”. It goes back
to Indo-European **(e)nek-* ‘to reach’, ‘to attain’. Approach is connoted in
Old English *néah(w)ian* ‘to approach’ and *néahl**ǽ**can* ‘to approach’,
‘to come close(r)’.



Older relatives have the same dual meaning of “near” in location and
approach, such as Old Saxon *n**āhbūr* (“near dweller”, Old English *
néagebúr*) and *nāhian* ‘to approach’. Like Old English *æfter*, Old Saxon *
aftar* (> *achter*), denotes both location (“behind”) and approach from
behind, but it is not featured in many compound which Old English
*æfter*is. The same goes for other Germanic languages.



So it is my hypothesis that on the Continent *nah-* etc. began to
predominate in the sense of “approaching from behind” and “following”
definitely *after* the 4th or 5th century while in largely isolated Britain
*æfter*- took on this function. Old English has some compounds with *æfter*,
but they are not terribly strange to Continentals; e.g.
*æfterfylgendlýc*‘successive’,
*æftergengar* ‘successor’, with the exception of *æfterspyrian* ‘to pursue’,
‘to inquire’ perhaps.



When we look at English constructions with *after-* we find that most of
them were created relatively late, in Middle English or thereafter;
afternoon (1300), aftermath (1523), afterwitted (1536), afterbirth (1587),
after-life (1593), afterthought (1661), afterpiece (1779), afterglow (1873).
Meanwhile, in the Continental relatives most of these came to be expressed
by means of *na*- and its cognates.



By the way, the shift *ft* > *cht* as in *aftar* > *achter* is pretty
regular in the Continental Lowlands languages.



[One of the things I like about this forum is it makes you look up word
origins you have never thought about. I have just looked up 'after' and
discovered that it has as relatives  O Fris efter  OS / OHG aftar  Du
achter  Gothic aftra etc etc back to PIE.]



I’m glad you said “one of ...”. ;-)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

Seattle, USA

•

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