Re: [tied] -ham [Re: Gmc. Place-names & the Pas-de-Calais]

At 12:36:37 PM on Friday, January 9, 2004, g wrote:

> Here,

> http://www.etymologie.info/~e/d_/de-orte__.html

> --ham
> deutet auf große fränkische
> Siedlungen hin (6.Jh. und später),
> auch später wurden viele Orte in
> Anlehnung daran benannt

> the authors say that this ending is a sign for the
> Frankish expansion (colonization) starting in the
> 6th c.

> [1] Is this correct?

Note that they say the same about all of the <-heim>
variants. To the best of my knowledge, it's in dispute.
It's an old idea that I think began as an attempt to explain
the almost disjoint distribution of <-heim> and <-ingen>
names in the southwest. I'm inclined to be a bit skeptical
and to see place-names in *-haimaz as common Gmc.

> [2] Is the South-German <-ham> relic because of
> some Bavarian or Franconian sub-dialect? Or is
> it a relic... "per se" (an old form)?

According to von Kienle (Historische Laut- und Formenlehre
des Deutschen), 'mhd. _ei_ wird im Bair. früh zu _ai_ und
weiter zu _a:_', so this may be a late-medieval Bavarian
phenomenon. Ah, better yet: Schwarz (Deutsche
Namenforschung II:17) says that '<-heim> unter dem Nebenton
im Bair. zu <-ham> geworden war'.

> In Germany, there are -ham toponyms seemingly
> only in South-Bavaria & Austria (the rest of
> the 'Reich' only has <-heim>).

> Noteworthy that -ham names coexist with -heim,
> -haus, -hausen ones; the multitude of -ham localities
> around <Rosenheim>, a major locality between
> Munich and Salzburg (on the railroad Vienna-
> Paris): no *Rosenham, but Rosenheim. And: I don't
> know whether there is a single case of <-ingham>,
> although in the same area <-ing> has been extremely
> productive.

Are there any names in <-kam> in that area? According to
Schwarz, this is often from <-ingheim> in Bavaria and Upper
Austria.

> (<-ingen> is farther in the West, it already signalizes
> the Suebian area; not typical of the Bavarian dialect
> zone.) I know of one <-ham>+<-ing> in: <Allhaming> in
> Austria.

That one is misleading: it's in record in 1277 as
<Alhalming>, so it's from *<Adelhelm-ing>.

> A few examples: all these German localities are in
> Southern Bavaria (Oberbayern), some of the counties
> even bordering Austria (such as Traunstein, Berch-
> tesgaden, Rosenheim).

> [G = Gemeinde (commune); Krs = Landkreis (county)]

> Aham (G Eiselfing, Krs Rosenheim)
> Aham (G Taufkirchen, Krs Erding)

I don't have early forms of the place-name per se, but
Brechenmacher (Etym. Wörterbuch der dt. Familiennamen) has
<Jorg der Ahaimer> 1371, an Austrian Lehensmann.

> Holzham (G Burghausen, Krs Altötting)
> Holzham (G Halfing, Krs Rosenheim)

<Ulr. der Holzhaimer> 1395 at Passau.

Brian