Re: Sjælland

Brian M. Scott:

> I recently had occasion to look into the etymology of the
> Danish place-name in the subject line. In OWN it appears in
> a number of forms; <Sjóland> and <Selund> seem to be the
> most common, <Selund> apparently occurring earlier. I've
> also run across mention of an ODan. <Siâland>. Digging
> around on the net, I found this at
> <http://sprogmuseet.dk/ordhistorier/sj%C3%A6lland/>:
>
> Den almindeligste accepterede opfattelse af oprindelsen
> til navnet <Sjælland> er imidlertid at den intet har at
> gøre med hverken 'sjæl', 's(j)ø', 'land' eller 'lund'.
> Den gammeldanske form <Siâland> stammer tilbage fra en
> fællesgermansk form *<Selha+wundia-> som er sammensat af
> et ord *<selha-> og en afledningsendelse *<wundia-> 'som
> er forsynet med, som ligner'. Ordet *<selha-> kan være to
> forskellige ord: (a) ét der svarer til og betyder det
> samme som dansk <sæl>, og (b) ét der betyder 'fure,
> indskæring'.
>
> The most generally accepted view of the origin of the name
> <Sjælland>, however, is that it has nothing to do with
> <sjæl> 'soul', <s(j)ø> 'sea', <land> 'land', or <lund>
> 'grove'. The ODan. form <Siâland> derives from a Common
> Gmc. form *<Selha+wundia-> that is composed of a word
> *<selha-> and a derivational ending *<wundia-> 'that is
> provided with, that resembles'. The word *<selha-> can be
> either of two different words: (a) one that corresponds to
> and means the same as Danish <sæl> 'seal', and (b) one
> that means 'furrow, incision, cut, notch'.
>
> It goes on to explain why (b) is generally preferred.
>
> The idea is clear enough, but this does leave me with a
> couple of questions about the details. First, why *-ia- in
> *wundia-? The <-und> suffix that appears in a number of
> island names looks to me like the outcome of something like
> *-wnt-ih2 > *-wund-i: > *-undi > -und. Secondly, *selha-
> 'seal' is no problem, but is there any Gmc. evidence for
> *selha- 'furrow, cut'? OE has <sulh> 'a furrow, a gully',
> but that appears to be zero-grade (and athematic). Is this
> minor carelessness in a popular presentation, or am I
> missing something?

In the legend the island of Sjælland was carved out of Sweden by Gefjon
with a plough pulled by her four oxen sons after she had been given it
as ploughland. Slim evidence, I know, but it looks like another origin
legend spun over (folk or real) etymology, in this case "furrow"-und (or
"furrow-land").

(If *selha- is an old folk etymology, what about *sálha-/-ō- "sallow"?)

--
Trond Engen