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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 2012-02 > 1329932064


From: John Simpson <>
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Loons and Quines
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:34:24 +0000 (GMT)
References: <mailman.477.1329879127.24490.aberdeen@rootsweb.com><1329916608.74547.YahooMailNeo@web29501.mail.ird.yahoo.com><4F44F924.3050603@which.net>
In-Reply-To: <4F44F924.3050603@which.net>


That's ok, Gavin - I chose my words badly and I apologise for implying that you thought the word "quine" came directly from OHG - I do understand the linguistic connectivities involved.

I also know that the Vikings didn't speak modern Norwegian, so even if there had been any settlements in the Aberdeenshire area there wouldn't have been a direct parentage from "kvinne" to "quine". The Old Norse for "woman" is "kona", but it just seemed as if the Norwegian "kvinne" was closer to "quine". Sorry if I misled anyone.

John



________________________________
From: Gavin Bell <>
To: John Simpson <>;
Sent: Wednesday, 22 February 2012, 14:18
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Loons and Quines

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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