From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 56486
Date: 2008-04-03
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen
"I refer here in particular to the many Hessian town and field namess
with Metz- as stem or first element organized by W. Arnold
(Ansiedelungen und Wanderungen dt. Stämme, p. 205) which might contain
an appelative matt- which had entered the Germanic [language], further
to Matten (Mattenerhof, at Treves), 1135 Mattena, and thirdly to
Metten and Mettingen, two villages at Westerkappeln (WNW Osnabrück) in
the neighborhood of which I furthermore find a Hettlage and on an old
map of Westphalia (by Le Coq) a Hathen, so that also up there could
have been a mix of Chatt- and Matt-. Finally I shouldn't forget
Mettis/Metz in Lorraine. The most important here is however that the
-k suffix of Mattiaci - the -iak of which (instead of a ik-, -ak- or
-uk) admittedly might be secondary - confirms the foreign origin of at
least this Matt- ..."
Torsten
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By the way,
if matt is ma?-t- "watery",
What about la Meuse, Maas, la Moselle ?
from *ma?-s- ??
Arnaud
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