LL-L "Etymology" 2009.10.20 (02) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 20 October 2009 - Volume 02
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From: DAVID COWLEY <DavidCowley at anglesey.gov.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.10.15 (03) [EN]

Very interesting - this level of local detail is something which seems to
get overlooked normally, focus normally being given to features such as
rivers and hills. Going further than this should become part of a thorough
study of all England and Lowland Scotland. Hadn't heard about Davies' book
before, which sounds really interesting - shall keep an eye out for it.

David

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From: DAVID COWLEY <DavidCowley at anglesey.gov.uk>
 Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.10.19 (05) [EN]

You wrote:

I remember reading on this very list that "yes" in English is from the
Welsh "oes".

'Yes' from 'oes'? - very interesting idea. This seems to be the kind of
thing that could be checked against the other Germanic languages - if
there are no others which had something akin to yes, the theory would be
more likely to be right.
You may be aware that Welsh has lots of words for 'yes', which depend
on the situation. A key feature if answering a question is that the
answer depends on what was asked, which would give literal translations
to English such as the following:
Are you going out?  ANS: I am/ I'm not
Will they be there? ANG: They will/ They won't

Its occurred to me that this kind of answering is not unheard of in
English, especially with yes/ no before, to give emphasis ('yes, I am,
no, they won't be). My knowledge of other Germanic languages is limited,
but if its the case that this isn't done in any of them, then it would
look like another Celtic influence on English. However, if that were to
be the case, there'd still be the question of checking how long this has
been around (some influence from more recent Welsh/ Irish/ Scottish
Gaelic speakers couldn't be ruled out).
DC

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

Hi, Sandy! Interesting!

I always assumed that "if" was a Germanic word, and the *Oxford
English
Dictionary* seems to agree:

[OE. *ƽ**if *(early WS. rare *ƽ**ief*), late WS. *ƽ**yf* (Northumbr.
rare *ƽ
**ef*), corresp. (more or less) to OFris. *ief*, *gef*, *ef* (*jof*,

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From: Abel Darwinkel <abeldarwinkel at huusvandetaol.nl>
 Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.10.19 (07) [EN]

Dear Ron,

You wrote: The mentioned verb variant, whose root appears to be sii-,
survives among the Continental Lowlands languages as well as in
Luxembourgian, German and Yiddish; e.g. Low Saxon sien, Dutch zijn, German
sein 'to be'.

To be in English, zijn in Dutch, is in different varieties in Low Saxon:
weden, wezen or wèzen.

Dutch words with an -ij are in Low Saxon often pronounced with ie, but not
this particular verb.

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Abel Darwinkel
Huus van de Taol
Wattweg 2a
9411 PX Beilen
abeldarwinkel at huusvandetaol.nl
0593-371010
www.huusvandetaol.nl

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

Moyen, Abel!

It's great to "hear" from you. Welcome to the round!

Folks, Abel not only has a great site (www.huusvandetaol.nl) but also
contributed the Norg dialect translation and narration of the Wren story
before he joined us: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/dreents-norg.php

Thanks again for that, Abel.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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