--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> At 11:44:18 AM on Saturday, January 3, 2009, tgpedersen
> wrote:
>
> > The last element of the name of the Swedish landscape
> > Medelpad is explained by the Swedish Wikipedia as meaning
> > "waterway"
>
> > http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medelpad
>
> > but in the English one as meaning something like "land
> > between two rivers"
>
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medelpad
>
> I suspect that that should be understood as '(land) between
> (two) rivers', with <medel> giving 'between' and <pad>
> giving 'river, waterway'.
>
> > Are the two senses identical somehow?
>
> Looks like it to me.
>
> German Wikipedia gives a slightly different interpretation
> with a reference:
>
> Der heute verlandete Selångers-Fjord war das entscheidende
> Landschaftsmerkmal und man vermutet, dass der Name
> "Medelpad" das Strandgebiet der ehemaligen Halbinsel
> Kungsnäs meinte und "Strandgebiet in der Mitte"
> bedeutete.[2]
>
> [2] Leif Grundberg: "Hamn i Kungens namn!" In: Helgonet i
> Nidaros. o.O. (1997) S. 208221, 212.
"Between" is SW. mellan, Da. (i)mellem, from dat.pl. of ODa mæthal
"middle", cf ON (i) millum.
Cf. the three westernmost boroughs (købstæder) on Fyn, which were the
eastern points of the three major ferry routes between Fyn and Jutland
in the middle ages.
http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogense
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogense
http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelfart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelfart
http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assens,_Denmark
The old name of Middelfart, Melfar, can only mean "the middle (ferry)
route".
Now if that *pa:d thing (note the long vowel) in Swedish meant
something like "low-lying land" (and there are many promising cognates
in NWB-land), it could be categorized with all those other words with
labial having to do with water; that might solve the *paþ- "way, path,
road" mystery too.
Note that it's a word in p-, so it's not Germanic, it can't be NWB,
unless it's imported by someone, and on top of that, according to at
least one of Schmid's examples (Pala vs. Fala)
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/61266
hydronyms in Scandinavia should be Grimm-shifted.
This is a tough one.
Torsten