From: andythewiros
Message: 64884
Date: 2009-08-21
>I'm not knowledgeable in this area, but isn't it possible that people might acquire nicknames that might be onomatopoeic representations of some distinctive quality they have, such as chubbiness, height, colour, etc.? In OE times couldn't actual given names, as opposed to nicknames, arise by this means?
> > Any possibility of onomatopoeia?
>
> You don't really mean that?
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia
>I basically meant making up names out of thin air. I think this is what happens when African-American parents name their daughters 'Lakeesha' or 'Jawanda' and names like that.
> > It's also interesting how the OE names mentioned above sometimes
> > have sound combinations that probably would not occur under normal
> > Germanic sound-laws: Putta, Ptt as examples. Perhaps onomatopeia
> > or mere improvisation has something to do with all these names.
>
> I don't think Putta pottered about more than other people and if he did, he probably didn't make any matching sound. As for 'improvisation', what is that?
> And why would English 'improvisations' lead to the same names as Illyrian or Etruscan?Pure coincidence. But I'm definitely not against the substrate idea, or the foreign origin (Illyrian, Etruscan, whatever) idea.
> Substrate seems to be the best solution, whatever effects that might have on the Anglo-Saxon self-image.Andrew
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