Re: Rozwadowski's Change

Rick McCallister:

> Torsten Pedersen:
>
>> Torsten Pedersen:
>>
>>> Douglas Kilday:
>>>
>>>> Torsten Pedersen:
>>>>
>>>>> Douglas Kilday:
>>>>>
>>>>>> "Aus lanthura [i.e. 'land-tax'] hat der schreiber Lanthusa
>>>>>> [a phantom place-name] gemacht.
>>>>>
>>>>> -husa? As far as I know, the "hire" word is without etymology,
>>>>> and first used in maritime vocabulary (so still in Danish). I
>>>>> propose it is a Verner doublet of *hu:s-ja- "to house", eg. "to
>>>>> hire" is to house sby, to take him into your household.
>>>>
>>>> I like that. Gmc. *xu:rjo: 'payment, land-tax' would originally be
>>>> 'payment for housing', pre-shifted *ku:syá: beside *kú:som 'house,
>>>> housing, building'. The restriction of *xu:rjo: and *xu:rjan 'to
>>>> pay for services, house, hire' to the NWB area suggests that
>>>> feudalism was imposed there when the Germans took over, AFTER
>>>> Grimm and Verner, with terminology that became obsolete elsewhere.
>>>> What we need is to identify more Gmc. words (as opposed to
>>>> historically NWB words) restricted to the NWB area in order to
>>>> develop a fuller theory of this takeover. Sailors presumably were
>>>> escaping the confines of feudalism. "Seeluft macht frei!"
>>>
>>> 'Hyre' v. in Da. is used in the sense of hiring sailors for a ship.
>>> 'Hyre' n. is the pay or the employment.
>
> Please allow me the privilege of potentially putting my foot in my
> mouth.

Is there room for another foot in there?

> Is it possible that there was once a functional difference between
> -s- and -r-? At least in one or more of the languages? e.g. passive
> vs. active "to house" vs. "to be housed"?
> I realize we're dealing with a change in sound but these often give
> way to changes in meaning when examples of the "unsuccessful"
> movement are retain: e.g. stinky vs. stanky, hungry vs. hongry,
> grammar vs. glamour, etc.

Or simpler and more regular than that. Since the -s-/-r- opposition
originated in stem vs. suffix stress, I think there's more than a
longshot's chance that whenever there are doublets they are aspectual in
origin. Not that this affects Torsten's and Douglas's hypothesis.

I'd say, though, that a coastal region having maritime terminology not
found in its hinterland is unsurprising. But I'm sure there's something
more to it that I haven't grasped.

Thinking of it, there's an ON neuter noun <hjó(n)> "servant (mostly used
collectively); (in plural) spouses". I don't know the etymology, but it
seems to be related, indicating a separate formation *hý- based on the
s-less root of the "house" word.

And while I'm at speculating, there's a number of Norwegian <Jordal>
toponyms (< <hjór->) that AFAIK are still unsufficiently explained. My
sources are old: Rygh quotes Olsen in pointing out that they're all
peripheral to the main agricultural centers. Olsen (and Rygh) suggests a
somewhat irregular development from *hjörðudalr <- *hjarða "livestock
river", but might it be "tenure valley"?

--
Trond Engen