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

From: tgpedersen
Message: 29504
Date: 2004-01-13

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:
> At 7:02:28 AM on Friday, January 9, 2004, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> > <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> >> At 5:28:34 AM on Thursday, January 8, 2004, tgpedersen
> >> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > Are there any *Beorminga- names in the vicinity [of
> > Birmingham]?
>
> Not to my knowledge.
>
> [...]
>
> > No, but the idea of having a 'reception center' for young
> > 'have- spatha, will-travel's on the continental side would
> > make a lot of sense logistically for someone in the
> > process of landnám, with a high attrition rate in his
> > retinue, don't you think?
>
> The question is based on preconceptions that I don't share.

I have no preconceptions in the matter. It's hypothesis all the way
down. It's not my problem that it collides with _your_ preconceptions.
>

> > Another fact: Udolph's gives "plot of arable land raised
> > above swampy territory" as the sense of <horst>/<hurst>.
>
> Attested senses of OE <hyrst> are 'a hillock, a bank', 'a
> copse, a wood', and, linking the two, 'a wooded eminence';
> in ME also 'a sandbank'. I have seen OHG <hurst> glossed 'a
> heap, a thicket, a sandbank', and LGer and EFris <horst> as
> 'a wooded eminence'.
>
> > But although this is found almost all over the place, also
> > in Flanders, it is not found in the Pas-de-Calais. In oter
> > words, the Germanic speakers in that area had use for a
> > word meaning "small fenced-in settelement" but not for a
> > word for arable land. How did they make a living then, and
> > for how long?
>
> This is ridiculous: even on Udolph's interpretation
> <horst>/<hurst> isn't a general term for arable land, but
> rather a term for a specific type of arable land.
>

I'll check his other "arable land" glosses.

Torsten