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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 2012-02 > 1329920292


From: Gavin Bell <>
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Loons and Quines
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:18:12 +0000
References: <mailman.477.1329879127.24490.aberdeen@rootsweb.com><1329916608.74547.YahooMailNeo@web29501.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <1329916608.74547.YahooMailNeo@web29501.mail.ird.yahoo.com>


John Simpson wrote:

>Just to add a bit to the linguistic background for "quine".
>
>In Norwegian the word for "woman" is "kvinne" (plural kvinnen) so clearly there is a link to "quine" - whether directly from the Norwegian through the Viking invasions,
>

Which "Viking invasions"? The Vikings conducted raids in many places,
but the only places in Scotland where they settled were Orkney, Shetland
and the Hebrides. We know this because, while there are many placenames
of obviously Norse origin in those islands, and in the immediately
adjacent parts of the mainland in the north and west, there are none in
most of Scotland. If the Norsemen weren't here long enough to leave
any placenames, it is unlikely that they gave us much in the way of
other vocabulary.

>or more anciently through Old High German as Gavin suggests, I am not qualified to say.
>

I wasn't suggesting that the Scots word came from Old High German - I
was simply using the OHG example as evidence that "quena/quine/kvinne"
is documented a good long way back in the history of the Germanic
languages. Sundry of the commonest terms describing people (mother,
father, brother,sister) exist in very similar forms in the various
Germanic languages - and in their more remote "cousins" such as the
Romance languages. This is because they originated long before many of
the splits in language groups which led to our present-day version of
the Tower of Babel.

To put it in genealogical terms: if my younger cousin and I both have
red hair* then it isn't because he inherited it from me** - it's because
our shared grandfather had red hair. Very similar mechanisms operate in
language.


Gavin Bell


* Well, I did, before it turned white and fell out.
** He couldn't! There is no gene path from me to him or vice-versa.

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