*land

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *land for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”),^[2][3] which Kroonen cites as *landa-, Orel as *lanđan, and Köbler as *landa-, *landam.^[2][3][4]

Morphology

A neuter a-stem.^[5][6] Ringe and Taylor trace the endingless plural of Old English land to Proto-Germanic *landō "lands", Proto-Northwest Germanic *landu, which lost its *-u, and Old High German lant continues the same plural form.^[7]

Evidence

The noun is attested in all the West Germanic languages: Old English land, also lond,^[8] Old Frisian lond, also land,^[9] Old Saxon land,^[10] Old Dutch lant^[11] and Old High German lant, the last from the Abrogans on.^[6] ONW has the Old Dutch word in Williram's commentary of 1100 and in the Fontes Egmundenses, of 1083–1206.^[11] Köbler lists a Lombard place name Lombardic Rugiland with the word.^[12]

Competing analyses

The Old English and Old Frisian forms with ⟨o⟩ belong to the evidence for an Anglo-Frisian group: Stiles puts the backing and nasalization of a before a nasal, as in *land > *lãnd, first in his preliminary chronology of the sound changes shared by English and Frisian, before the fronting of a.^[13] De Vaan takes the variation of lond and land to show that the nasalization lasted well into Old Frisian, with ⟨on⟩ preferred in the eastern texts and ⟨an⟩ in the western ones.^[14] He considers that speakers of Proto-Frisian may have imposed their allophones of a on Proto-Franconian words around 700, so that a Proto-Flemish *lãnd would have lost its nasalization in Old Flemish; or else that Proto-Frisian alternated between nominative and accusative singular *lõnd and plural *landu, and the coastal dialects generalized the oral vowel.^[14]

Meanings

1. land, area of ground^[1]

Old Frisian also used the word for landed property, for a territory, and for the people of a land and its assembly,^[9] and Old High German for "homeland", "field", "region" and "realm".^[6]

Derivatives

• *landaskapi "region, landscape", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[15] Köbler lists the corresponding compound under Old Saxon land.^[5]

Reflexes

• Old English: land (“land, earth”)^[8]
• Old Frisian: lond (“land, ground, territory”)^[9]
• Old Saxon: land (“land, earth, territory”)^[10]
• Old Dutch: lant (“land”)^[11]
• Old High German: lant (“land, homeland, region, realm”)^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *land
2. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 326
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 235
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *landa-
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. land
6. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. lant
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 286
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. land
9. ^ a b c Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. lond
10. ^ a b Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. 239
11. ^ a b c Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. lant
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *land
13. ^ Stiles, Patrick V. (1995), Remarks on the 'Anglo-Frisian' thesis, in: Volkert F. Faltings, Alastair G. H. Walker, Ommo Wilts (eds), Friesische Studien II, NOWELE Supplement 12, Odense: Odense University Press, 177–220, p. §8.1
14. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2017), The Dawn of Dutch: Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, NOWELE Supplement Series 30, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 218
15. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *landaskapi