Re: [tied] Dr van Helsing, I presume?

You're right, the -ing formation is more general and can refer to a place of origin, though I'm not sure how old this usage. So maybe the Helsings were "people from the Hals" rather than "descendants/servants of Hals".

Silesia is supposed to be the land of the Silings (Polish S'la,sk < *sIle~z^-Isk-U < *siling-isk-), one of the major "Vandalic" tribes of the Lugian union. They are usually mentioned together with the Hasdings, as in Tacitus. The name is no doubt Germanic but I don't know how to etymologise it. Sall- in Salling doesn't look too promising as a match for Sil-. Give me some time to think it over.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen@...

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 1:11 PM

Subject: Odp: [tied] Re: kuningas <-> knyaz

--- In cybalist@......, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@......> wrote: > <Hals-> in the sense "narrow something" (strait, pass, etc.) is found in Germanic toponymy, but here I feel we have a personal name or anyway a term denoting a man, just as in other -ing derivatives. The Heimskringla says that the province of Helsingjaland (not to be confused with Helsinki) was established by Thorer Helsing (note also Hysing and Helsing, Gandalf's sons). <Helsing> has the typical structure of tribal or clan names. > > Piotr > But what would that name be the nick- of? And I think I saw a non- person explanation for Birmingham, viz related to the bjarm- people (which some have tried to relate to Perm'). Your example with mr. (prof. van ?) Helsing shows perhaps that a Helsing clan or tribe existed, but not a name *Hals-. Besides the -ing ending is alive and kicking in the Scandinavian languages. How about <færing> "inhabitant of the Faroe Islands (which were not discovered by a mr. Sheep)", <falstring> "person from the island of Falster", <yngling> "young man", <yndling> favorite (these -ing's are different from the verbal noun forming -(n)ing). BTW, talking of -ing, I saw somewhere that the name of the Jutland peninsula of Salling (in the Limfjord) was related to Silesia (Slãsk)? Torsten
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