Ancient Scandinavian and earlier Germanic Loanwords in Finnic

ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN AND EARLIER GERMANIC LOANWORDS IN FINNIC Johan Schalin VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD ON WWW.PATREON.COM/NORSEBYSW August 2024 Photo: Outlook east from Kvīlanbjärji (‘rest hill’) 52 miles from Russia, East Nyland, Finland 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD The Presentation 3) What’s the story? 1) Introduction o o What are Finnic languages? Five best known loanwords: revisiting common belief 1 2) Data and chronology o o o Around 600-1000 Ancient Scandinavian and older Germanic loanwords in Finnic First encounter of Pre-Germanic and West-Uralic in the Bronze Age The “stratification” of the loanwords 18th Aug 2024 o o o Semantic spheres of life Revisiting common belief 2 Illustration: Loanwords borrowed twice 4) What about the Viking Age? o o o Syncope & umlaut does not show well Elusive dating criteria Good candidates for Viking Age borrowings 5) Take-aways for Germanic language history 6) Dictionaries, further reading JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD What are Finnic languages? • About a dozen languages to the East (and North) of the Baltic Sea, all closely related to Estonian and Finnish. • Larger family: Uralic (AKA “Finno-Ugric”). • Closest relatives: Sámi and Mordvinic languages (Hungarian is remarkably remote) • Neighbours and prehistoric contact languages in the Baltic region: • Proto- and North Germanic >….> Swedish • Proto-Baltic and *North Baltic (extinct) • other Uralic languages (Sámi, Permic, extinct ones) • some evidence for early contact with Slavic. 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD License: CC BY 4.0 Credit: https://sites.utu.fi/urhia/language-maps/ The “top-5” most-quoted Finnic loanwords from Germanic/Scandinavian are the Finnish words: ▪ joulu ‘X-mas, yule’ cf. Old Norse jól (East Nordic jūl) < *jeulu ▪ äiti < äitei ‘mother’ cf. Gothic aiþei, Old High German -eidi & Old Norse eiða ▪ kuningas <*kuningas/kuninkaza- ‘king’ cf. Old Norse konungr < *kuningaz ▪ lammas <*lambas/lampaza- ‘sheep’ cf. Gothic lamb & Old Gutnish *lamb ‘sheep’ < *lambaz ▪ rengas <*rëngas/rënkaza- ‘ring’ cf. Old Norse hringr < *hringaz < *χrengaz Common belief 1: Proto-Finnic borrowed words from Proto-Germanic. ◦ Reality: The 3–4 first examples above are unlikely to be “Proto-Germanic”. Only rengas is manifestly that old. While a majority of the ca. 600-1000 Finnic loanwords from “Germanic” are 500-1000 years younger than Proto-Germanic (Northwest Germanic, Ancient Scandinavian), some (like lammas) are hard to date. ◦ E.g. kuningas is likely to be from “Northwest Germanic” and äitei maybe even younger. joulu is ambiguous. 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Ancient Scandinavian and older Germanic loan words in Finnic Ancient Scandinavian, Germanic or Pre-Germanic (1000 BCE – 800 CE): 523 approved etymologies 296 possible 105 unlikely Old Nordic or Ancient Scandinavian (200 -1200 CE): 123 approved etymologies 28 possible Total 523 – 1075 (As counted in Kuokkala 2017) 18th Aug 2024 ➢ The number of loanwords is very large: 600-1000 ➢ In Proto-Finnic there are more borrowed Germanic word stems than verifiably inherited Uralic stems (even if the latter dominate the most frequent vocabulary). ➢ Among the top-3 most frequent Finnish words is “ja” ‘and’, which is a Germanic loanword. Compare Gothic “jah” ‘and’. ➢ Other high-frequency loanwords (among top 170) are: ➢ aika ‘time’ <= *aiwaz > Old Norse æfi ➢ asia ‘thing, matter’ <?*anʦia <= ?*uz-andia > Old Norse ørendi ➢ entä ‘what if’ <= *æn(þ)+þā(h) > Old Norse enda ‘and still’ ➢ halu-ta ‘to want’ <= *hal-ō(ja)n > Old Norse hala ‘haul, hale, pull’ ➢ katso-a ‘to look’ <*kaʨʨ-o- <= ?*gātianą > ON gæta ‘take care of’ ➢ äitei ‘mother’ <= *aiþį̄ > Old High German -eidi cf. Gothic aiþei or <= *aiðijōn > ON eiða, Runic afarɛiða (Sö 176) JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD First encounter of Pre-Germanic and West-Uralic in the Bronze Age Explanation of map: North-western passage: Pre-Sámi – South-western passage: Pre-Finnic Zooming in area From Valter Lang ja Karl Pajusalu 2017: “Väinäjoen itämerensuomi” with permission by Valter Lang Free map from: https://gisgeography.com/europe-blank-map-country-outlines/ 18th Aug 2024 1. The original core area of textile ceramics 2. The spread of pre-Djakovo ceramics 3. Ananjino axes JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD 4. Akozino-Mälar axes on the Middle Volga 5. Pre-Germanic population on the east coast of the Baltic Sea The “stratification” of the loanwords * The older Germanic and later Paleo-Scandinavian (AKA “Proto Norse”) loanwords come in many “strata”. By their stratification, the sound changes in Finnic and Germanic can be mutually sequenced. * Finnic changed rapidly in the Middle Proto-Finnic period, but the pace of change slowed down during the Roman Age, while borrowing intensified. Thus, the “freezer” effect is best evident for Paleo-Scandinavian. * By contrast, syncope and umlaut is hardly traceable in the material. 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Semantic spheres of life Animal husbandry (typically old loans), cf. lammas ‘sheep’ Society (majority are young loans), cf. kuningas ‘king’ saura ‘pole (for hey)’ < *sapra cf Old Gutnish staur(r) kansa ‘people’ < *χansō ‘troop’ cf. Old English hōs ’company’ nauta ‘cattle, cow’ cf Old Norse naut halli-ta ‘to govern, handle’ cf. Old Norse halda ’hold’ kana ‘hen’ cf. Old Norse hani/hana ‘cock’ murha ‘murder’ cf. Old Norse morð vihko ‘sheaf’ < *viʃko cf Old Norse visk vartija ‘guard’ cf. Gothic wardja, Old Norse vǫrðr niittää ‘reap, mow’ < *niit- cf Old Norse sníða ‘to crop’ kauppa ‘purchase; shop’ cf. Old Norse kaupa ‘to buy’ Family, body parts (both old and young loans), cf. äiti ‘mother’ Travel, transportation (mostly oldish) otsa ‘forehead’ <*onʨʨa cf. Old Norse enni < *anþją ratsas ‘horse’ < *raʨʨas cf. OEngl. rǣde ’rider’ <*raidjaz lanne/lanteet ‘pelvis, hip’ cf. Old Norse lend < *landī/-ju pursi ‘sail ship’ < *purʦi cf. English ‘board’ < *burdą kuve/kupeet ‘flank’ < *kup-ëɧ- cf. English hip < *χupiz laiva ‘ship’ cf. Old Norse fley < *flawja hartia ‘shoulder’ purje ‘sail’ < *purj-ëɧ- cf Old Norse byrr ‘tail wind’ 18th Aug 2024 cf. Old Norse herðr/ herðar JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Common belief 2 Common belief 2: Germanic loanwords are easily recognizable because Finnish has not changed much since the Proto-Germanic era and preserves the reconstructed forms. ◦ Reality: During the first millennium BCE Finnic changed more than Germanic; these changes sometimes offer good criteria for a rough date of borrowing, i.e. whether the words are ProtoGermanic or later. The oldest Germanic loanwords are typically not easily recognizable. Examples: Fi. hakea ‘to seek, fetch’ < *ɧakë-dak/ɧagë- < *ʃakë- ← *ʂāge-i̯a-ną > *sōkijan > ON sǿkja ‘seek’ Fi. heittää ‘to throw’ < *ʃē-ittä-däk/ʃē-itˑä- ← *ʂē-aną > Old Norse sá ‘to sow’ Fi. otsa ‘forehead’ < *onʨʨa ← *anþją > Old Norse enni ‘forehead’ Fi. pursi ‘sail ship’ < *purʦi/purdë- ← *burdą > Eng. board Fi. kelvata ‘to avail’ < *këlba-tˑak/këlpa-da- ← *χelpaną > *hialpã > ON hjálpa ‘to help’ Fi. sauna ‘sauna’ < *sakna ←? *stagna > ON stakkr → Eng. stack 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Loanwords borrowed twice Early PFc kaiʃas Mid. PFc kaiɧas Mid. PFc keiɧäs Late PFc keihäs *stagna- ‘spear’ ‘stack’ gaizaz sakna *jegʷlō NWGermanic or Transitional Scandinavian? stagna? juɧla joulu kaira Branching PFc Modern *gaizaz takka kaiRaR? kæiRR saɣna stakka- ‘yule’ Early PrGmc jeɣʷlō PrGmc jewlō NWGm juhla ?or? ɪwlʊ Transit. Scand1 juhla joulu iowlu? Transit. Scand2 Old Norse keihäs kaira geirr sauna taakka stakkr juhla joulu joulu jól ‘spear’ ‘auger’ ‘spear’ ‘sauna’ ‘hay load’ ‘stack’ ‘feast’ ‘yule’ ‘yule’ ‘yule’ 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD What about the Viking Age? Syncope & umlaut does not feature well Dating loanwords reliably between Paleo-Scandinavian (ending 500 CE) and Old Swedish (beginning 1225 CE) is remarkably difficult. Otherwise “youngish” Paleo-Scandinavian borrowings typically show no signs of either umlaut or syncope: ◦ lattia ‘floor’ < *latt(i)ja ← *flatja- > Old Norse flet ◦ patja ‘mattress’ ← *baðja- > Old Norse beðr ◦ hartiat ’shoulders’ < *hart(i)ja(t) ← *harðijō(R) > Old Norse herðar Etymologies with completed umlaut (and syncope) can often be linked to a medieval context ◦ mylly ‘mill’ ← Old Swedish (oblique case) myllo Two words with syncope but no umlaut: kari ‘skerry’ ← *skarj(a) > ON sker & rasi ← *grasj(a) > OSw græs Three (isolated) words with incipient labial umlaut: ◦ olut ‘beer, ale’ < *olut/olude← *ɞlu(þ-) > Old Swedish öl ‘beer’ ◦ rohkea ‘diligent, brave; abundant’ ← *wrɞskwaR > Old Norse rǫskr ‘energetic; spacious’ ◦ louhi ‘lightning’ ← *lɞugiz > Old Norse leygr ‘fire, flame’ 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Elusive dating criteria After the loss of Transitional Scandinavian word-final vowels (syncope era “apocope”) a custom arose in Finnic to form an innovative type of i-stems, but it was not consistent: ◦ Often as in Old Swedish bænk- ‘bench’ → penkki and medieval Fenno-Swedish leik- ‘play’ → leikki ◦ But at times as in Old Swedish līm ‘glue’ → liima, rūm ‘room’ → ruuma ‘hold’, vāgh ‘scales’ → vaaka Ancient Scandinavian primary diphthongs were monophthongized in literary Old Swedish but generally not so in spoken Fenno-Swedish (see leik- → leikki above), and further: ◦ Fenno-Swedish *löus ‘loose’ (cf. ON lauss) → lousa/lousi ◦ Fenno-Swedish *löuna ‘to reward’ (cf. ON launa) → lounia ’compensate’ ◦ Old East Nordic *löuga(r)dagh ‘Saturday’ (cf. Fenno-Swedish löurda/löuda) → lauɣantai ◦ Fenno-Swedish öuskar ‘bailer’ (cf. ON ausker) → auskari/äyskäri 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Good candidates for Viking Age borrowings Three Viking Age words: 1. Early Finnish kaupunki ‘town’ ← Old East Nordic *köupungR, with the same substitution as in lauantai and auskari (Note! cannot be from older *kɞupa+angra!!). 2. North Finnic reitti ‘sea route’ ← Old East Nordic wræitR ‘(sea) route’. Cf. ON áreitr ‘section of river course’ & sjóreitr ‘confined nautical or lacustrine area’ (see Schalin 2014b: p. 276). 3. Early Finnish Rōþþi ‘Swedish; Finnish’ < Common Finnic *rōʦʦi ‘Swedish’ (> East Slavic Rus’) ← ?Old East Nordic *rōðR/*rōðᵊR < *rōþuz/rōðuz (see Schalin 2018: p. 99), or < rōþ(r)s-. Difficult open questions (see Schalin 2018: p. 147f.): ◦ How old is äyri, the Finnish name of the coin *øyri > Sw öre (from Latin aureum)? ◦ How old is common Finnic kauppa ‘purchase’ (PlSc *kaupōn or (derived from the verb) *kaupa > ON kaup)? ◦ How old is Central Finnic markka ‘pound (unit for weight and value)’ (PlSc *markR or *marku > ON mǫrk)? 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Take-aways for the history of Germanic 1. Germanic developed from Proto-Indo-European in Scandinavia/Baltic Sea Region → not in Germany (Kallio 2015) 2. There must have been a few centuries between Proto-Germanic proper and runic Paleo-Scandinavian to accommodate the Finnic (and Sámi) sound changes. ▪ Therefore (Proto-)Northwest-Germanic must be accommodated in the chronology (Pre-Roman/Early Roman era) ▪ Latin loanwords in PGmc may be mediated by Celtic (Stifter, David. 2009: The Proto-Germanic shift *ā>*ō and early Germanic linguistic contacts. http://dx.doi.org/10.13109/hisp.2009.122.1.268) 3. There is no continuity of “Sievers’ law” from Proto-Indo-European to Paleo-Scandinavian (“Proto-Norse”): ▪ Finnish katso-a ‘to look’ < *kaʨʨ-o- ← *gātjaną > *gātijan > ON gæta ‘take care of’ ▪ Finnish otsa ‘forehead’ < *onʨʨa ← *anþją > *anþiją > Old Norse enni Note that there are plenty more examples from Late Proto-Sámi! (Luobbal Sámmol Sámmol Ánte [Aikio, Ante] 2022: Loanwords from unattested Nordic source forms in Saami https://doi.org/10.33339/fuf.87404 3. The precursory period of “allophonic” or “sub-phonemic” umlaut was indeed very short: ▪ Proto-Finnic *latt(i)ja, *patja, *hart(i)ja(t) cf. Old Norse flet, beðr, herðar ▪ Branching Proto-Finnic *kari ‘skerry’ ← *skar (<*skarją) > Old Norse sker 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Etymological dictionaries not in English: use machine translation! ❑ ETY = Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat [Etymological dictionary of Estonian], online, Estonian only: https://arhiiv.eki.ee/dict/ety/ LägLoS, example article ❑EVE = Suomen vanhimman sanaston etymologinen verkkosanakirja [Etymological online dictionary of the oldest Finnish vocabulary], under construction, Finnish only: https://sanat.csc.fi/wiki/EVE-etusivu ❑ LägLoS = Kylstra, A. D. et al. 1991, 1996, 2012. Lexikon der älteren germanischen Lehnwörter in den ostseefinnischen Sprachen [Lexicon of older Germanic loanwords in the Baltic-Finnic Languages], three volumes. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ❑ SES = Suomen etymologinen sanakirja [Finnish etymological dictionary], online, Finnish only: https://kaino.kotus.fi/suomenetymologinensanakirja/ 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Further reading On Germanic loanwords in Finnic ❑ Kallio, P. (2015). The Stratigraphy of the Germanic Loanwords in Finnic. In J. O. Askedal & H. F. Nielsen (Eds.), Early Germanic Languages in Contact, pp. 23–38. Amsterdam, Philadelphia. https://doi.org/10.1075/nss.27.02kal ❑ Koivulehto, J. (2002). Contact with Non-Germanic Languages II: Relations to the East. In O. Bandle et al. (eds), The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages, pp. 583-594. Berlin: de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197051 ❑ Kuokkala J. (2017). Statistics and stratistics of the Germanic loanwords in Finnic. Conference presentation at Contextualizing Historical Lexicology, Helsinki, 17.5.2017 ❑ Schalin J. (2018). Preliterary Scandinavian sound change viewed from the east. Umlaut remodelled and language contact revisited. Doctoral compilation thesis (summary chapter). Helsinki–Helsingfors. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4387-7 18th Aug 2024 ❑ 2019: Scandinavian–Finnic Language Contact and Problems of Periodisation. In The Retrospective Methods Network Newsletter 14 (Special issue: Inter-disciplinary and comparative methodologies: exploring circum-baltic cultures and beyond), p. 112–122. On the Viking Age language contact in the Baltic region ❑ Schalin, J. (2014). Scandinavian–Finnish Language Contact in the Viking Age in the Light of Borrowed Names. Chapter in: ❑ Ahola J., Frog, & C. Tolley (Eds.), Fibula, Fabula, Fact: The Viking Age in Finland, pp. 399–436. Helsinki: SKS Finnish Literature Society. https://doi.org/10.21435/sfh.18 ❑ Schalin, J. & Frog. (2014b). Toponymy and Seafaring: Indications and Implications of Navigation along the Åland Islands. Chapter in: ❑ Ahola J., Frog, & J. Lucenius (Eds.), The Viking Age in Åland: Insights into Identity and Remnants of Culture, pp. 273–302. Helsinki. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/332840 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD Tack! Kiitos! Thank you! https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Johan-Schalin https://helsinki.academia.edu/JohanSchalin 18th Aug 2024 JOHAN SCHALIN, PHD FROM UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. VISITING DR. JACKSON CRAWFORD