LL-L "Lexicon" 2009.10.18 (02) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 18 October 2009 - Volume 02
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Dear Lowlanders,

Talking about language contacts ...

It is certainly not true to say that “basic,” “small” words are not adopted
from one language to another.


Looking at words for the conjunction “and” alone, there is the glaring
example of supposedly Arabic-derived *wa* (Ùˆ) in numerous languages
throughout Africa and Asia. In many cases, such as in the Turkic branch of
Altaic, it may be said that it was a novel word, where previously simple
enumerations or equivalents of “with” and the like were used. In other cases
*wa* came to replace native equivalents, such as *ve* replacing Old Iranian
*utā* in the Iranian group of Indo-Iranian, a branch of Indo-European.

Germanic words for “and” can be found as well.

One example is supposedly German-derived (*und* >) *unt* in northern
dialects of Sinti Romani, an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-European
family.

In Draveno-Polabian (an extinct West Slavic language of the eastern
Lunenburg Heath) there is *un*, undoubtedly imported from Low Saxon (*un* <
*unde*).

Which brings me to *un* in Latvian and closely related Baltic varieties that
are by some considered Latvian dialect groups. Theoretically, I would expect
**be* to be the word for "and" there. But ... Please see the lists below,
given in English and German because the names are little known and diverge
considerably:



[noun] *and* [noun]



Eastern Baltic:

   - Old Prussian [Prūsiskan]: *be***

Western Baltic:

   - Sudovian (Yotvingian) [SÅ«daviskas]: *be*, *ba*


   - Lithuanian [Lietuvių]: *bei*


   - Samogitian (Žemaitėška): *ė*


   - Latvian [Latviešu]: *un*


   - Latgalian [Latgalīšu]: *un*


   - New Curonian [Kursenieku valoda]: *un*



[Nomen] *und* [Nomen]


Ostbaltisch:

   - Altpreußisch [Prūsiskan]: *be***

Westbaltisch:

   - Jatwingisch (Sudauisch) [SÅ«daviskas]: *be*, *ba*


   - Litauisch [Lietuvių]: *bei*


   - Schemaitisch (Žemaitėška): *ė*


   - Lettisch [Latviešu]: *un*


   - Lettgallisch [Latgalīšu]: *un*


   - Nehrungskurisch [Kursenieku valoda]: *un*



Question: Did the Latvian group import the word from (Low) Saxon or from
German? (Some German dialects have *un* instead of *und*, as does Yiddish,
though I hardly think that this is a Yiddish loan.)



By the way, Latvian *jā* for ‘yes’ and Lithuanian *jo* for casual ‘yes’
('yep') are clearly Germanic loans as well, as is *jah* 'yes' in Estonian, a
Uralic language. Likely donor candidates are (Low) Saxon and Scandinavian in
my opinion.



Are there opinions and information among you that might shed additional
light onto this?



Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

Seattle, USA

•

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