Re: Schöffe I

>
> 4) thus in particular in the language of jurisdiction, and in this
> use still rather widespread also in Modern German.
>
> a) das recht schöpfen, festsetzen, bestimmen, "jus dicere" Wachter
> 1457, referring to Swedish 'skipa rætt', "jus administrare";
> recht sprechen, schöpfen, beschliessen. constitut. Fridr. III imp.
> an. 1451 see ibd.;

...

> - that this is the original sense of this expression is shown by the
> following passage:
> 'wann sie (die geschlechter und die gemeinde) begerten zů beyder
> seitt, das etlich verordnet wurden, die recht und gesetz schöffen
> und schreiben solten der statt Rom.' Livius deutsch (Meyntz 1551)
> 44b;
> of the judge:
> 'dieser sinn braucht nicht der steine unter den alten linden, um
> gutes recht zu schöpfen.' Immermann Münchh. 4, 134.
> meanwhile this sense has become generally mostly forgotten and
> <schöpfen> in this connection is thus mostly understood as
> "haurire", so the 'recht schöpfen' means "take, fetch 'recht' (the
> law, what's right) from somewhere" and is now no more said of the
> legislator and rechtsprecher "law speaker", but of the plaintiff ...

I think Grimm is wrong here, the <reht> etc of
Sw. skipa rätt "carry out a due process of law" (eg. Isaiah 2.4 'Och han skall döma mellan hednafolken och skipa rätt åt många folk' "And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples"),
rättsskipning "the application of law by the courts",
German <rechtschaffen> "righteous" etc
is not the noun <reht>, but the adjective <reht> "right", used adverbially, ie. "rightly"; thus skipa/schaffen and all its cognates in those expressions should be understood as just one metaphorical step from its original sense of "divide, split up; take out the bad stuff", and doing that "rightly", ie doing it right. Thus, the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6ffe ,
the judge of the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehmic_court
was originally seen as someone skilled at <skepan>, <skopan> etc, etc, ie in the art of processing wood.


Now, cf. Uralic

UEW
'śeppä 'skilled' FU
Finn. seppä 'Schmied, Meister, Künstler; (SKES) taitava; geschickt',
sepästi 'kunstreich, geschickt';
est. sepp (Gen. sepa) 'Schmied, Handwerker', |

lapp. N
čap'pe -pp- 'clever, efficient',
-čæp'pe -pp- '-smith, one who makes something',
L tjiehppÄ", tjähppÄ" 'flink, tüchtig, geschickt',
К (817) Τ čiehpe,
Kld. Not. čiehp, А čер 'Meister', (Τ. Ι. Ιtk., WbKKlp. 663)
Ко. Р tčĭĕ'ppE, Not. ťš´ėäo`ppL-, Kld. ťš´ieò`р(E) 'geschickt; geschickter Mensch, Meister' |

?ung. szép 'schön, (dial.) kellemes, kedvezö (SzamSz.), jó; angenehm, günstig gut, (dial.) derék, nagy, hatalmas; stattlich, groß, mächtig' (SzamSz., SzegSz.).

From the concluded sense of "skilled" may easily have developed the senses of "master, smith" in Finnish and Saami, and "beautiful" in Hungarian; cf.
Hungarian ügyes "skilled" ~ (dial.) "pretty",
Mansi (Ahlqv.) mašter "master" ~ "gewandt",
Khanty (547) DN máśtar "master" ~ "skilled in something",
(1026) Kamassian tus "master" ~ (Steinitz, OVd. 1 : 132) Khanty, Synja tus "beautiful",
Turkish, Kyrgyz šebär "a master (in something)" ~ Karaim čibär "beautiful".

The derivation of the Hungarian word from
Chuvash Å¡ep "beautiful"(Rónaâ€"Tas: NytudÉrt. 58 : 174)
is improbable, since the Chuvash word is found only in a small area.
F. Mészaros (NyK 65:178, s. auch PD 2201) has listed the Hungarian word with
Khanty (835)
V süγ, Trj. siγ "beauty",
V sükəŋ "beautiful, good looking (person)",
(PD 2201) J siw "beauty", sikəŋ "beautiful". That is however wrong, since the Ugrian *k (> *γ) which we must assume because of Khanty after spirantization and vocalization would have given *szëvëp or *szép, *szíp. That however is contradicted by the facts of the linguistic history of Hungarian, since szép originally had a short vowel: *szëp8¨, cf. 1508: zepb (DöbrK 502), szëbb. The vowel in szep may - after loss of the final vowel - have been lengthened in Old Hungarian times.'

It seems the profession(?) was there too, but only in the original concrete sense.


Torsten