*landaskapi

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *landaskapi "landscape, region" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *landaskapiz (“landscape, region, area”), as Wiktionary derives it, equivalent to *land (“land”) and *-skapi.^[1] Köbler refers each of the attested words to the word for "land" and the suffix: Old English landscipe,^[2] Old Frisian landskip,^[3] Old Saxon landskepi^[4] and Old High German lantskaf.^[5]

Morphology

An i-stem, masculine in Old English, neuter in Old Saxon and feminine in Old High German.^[2][6][5] Ringe and Taylor trace the suffix to Proto-Germanic *skapiz "shape, form, condition", derived from *skapjaną "to shape"; its compounds could be reanalysed as suffixed nouns, a development that may have begun in Proto-West Germanic, and many such nouns are shared by several West Germanic languages.^[7] The syncope of vowels before the suffix in Old High German shows that these nouns were still accented like compounds.^[7]

Evidence

The word is attested in all the old West Germanic languages but Old Dutch.^[2][3][4][5] Old High German has it from glosses of 765 on,^[5] Old Saxon in the Heliand, which Köbler dates to 830, and in glosses.^[4] Köbler asks whether the Old High German sense "province" is a semantic loan from Latin prōvincia.^[5]

Meanings

1. landscape^[1][2]
2. region^[1][2]

Old Saxon also used the word for "country, kingdom, world",^[4] and Old High German for "territory, district, dominion, province".^[5]

Reflexes

• Old English: landscipe (“region, landscape”)^[2]
• Old Frisian: landskip (“landscape”)^[3]
• Old Saxon: landskepi (“land, region, landscape”)^[6]
• Old High German: lantskaf (“landscape, land, district, province”)^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *landaskapi
2. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. landscipe
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. landskip
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. landskėpi
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. lantskaf
6. ^ a b Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. landskepi
7. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 132