Statistics and stratistics of theGermanic loanwords in Finnic

Juha Kuokkala

Contextualizing Historical Lexicology

Helsinki, 17.5.2017

(with minor additions 31.5.2017)

Germanic loanwords in Finnic

τ So-called early Germanic loanwords:from ~Proto-Germanic to Proto-Finnic(ca. 500 - 1000 items; LägLoS)

τ Continuous contacts from the Bronze Age on;earliest Pre- and Paleo-Germanic loans to Early Proto-Finnic, latest North Germanic (Proto-Norse) loans toLate Proto-Finnic (ca. 200 – 800 CE)

τ Younger Scandinavian loans from Old Swedish andModern Swedish to differentiated Finnic idioms

LägLoS (Lexikon der älterengermanischen Lehnwörter in denostseefinnischen Sprachen)

τ Composed by A. D. Kylstra, Tette Hofstra, Sirkka-LiisaHahmo & Osmo Nikkilä

τ Three volumes 1991, 1996, 2012

τ Discusses all Finnic words that have been consideredborrowings from Germanic (between Palaeo-Germanicand Proto-Norse)

τ The most comprehensive work on Germanic loanwordsin Finnic thus far (although many new etymologies havebeen proposed since the the first volumes of LägLoS)

From Lexikon to database

Total 1623 Gmc. etymologies for 1401 (+10) word(familie)s

sanal_ksmsm_Läglos nr_etym_Läglosksm_Läglos kgerm_Läglos eval_Lägloss lama 1 *lama *lama-z gs lammas 1 *lampas *lambaz lambiz gs lanka 1 *lanka *langan- gs lanko 1 *lanko *ga-langa-z bi-langa- gs lano 1 *lano *lanōn- ?ns lansi 1 *lansi:te *landa- ?g/vs lanta1 1 *lanta *landa- ?gs lanta2 1 *lanta *xlanda- g/ns lantio 1 *lanteh lant(i)jo *land(w)(i)jō landīn- gs lapa 1 *lapa *labban- -gs lapio 1 *lapita lapito *lapjō ?gs lappa 1 *lappa *lappan- lappa-z ?-gs lasku 1 *lasku *fla(x)skōn- ns latisko 1 *lattisko * -gv latjata 1 *latja- *xladjan- ?gs lato 1 *lato *xlaþōn- xlaþan- g/nv latoa 1 *lato- *xlaþan- ga lattea 1 *lattV- *flata-z ?gs lattia 1 *latt(i)ja lattek *flatja- g

Finnic languagedistributions areto be added soon

LägLoS’s evaluations of theirentries

JK/SJ PKGerm. LW 517 518 !

? Germ. LW 290 290? Germ. LW (?) 1 1

Kaum germ. LW 105 105Kein germ. LW 244 243 !

Germ. oder älteres LW 6 6? Germ. oder älteres LW 5 5

Älteres LW 0 0? Älteres LW 1 1

Germ. oder jüngeres LW 123 124 !? Germ. oder jüngeres LW 28 28

Jüngeres LW 51 49 !? Jüngeres LW 30 31 !

1401 1401

(Compared with figures in Kallio 2015)

LägLoS’s evaluations of theirentries

JK/SJ PKGerm. LW 517 518 !

? Germ. LW 290 290? Germ. LW (?) 1 1

Kaum germ. LW 105 105Kein germ. LW 244 243 !

Germ. oder älteres LW 6 6? Germ. oder älteres LW 5 5

Älteres LW 0 0? Älteres LW 1 1

Germ. oder jüngeres LW 123 124 !? Germ. oder jüngeres LW 28 28

Jüngeres LW 51 49 !? Jüngeres LW 30 31 !

1401 1401

517 - 1075

(Compared with figures in Kallio 2015)

Part-of-speech distribution

Verb v 150 15 %

Noun s 690 71 %

Noun and/or adjective as 12 1 %

Adjective a 97 10 %

Noun stem based adverb etc. s- 13 1 %

Particle, adverb, adposition,conjunction p 8 1 %

970 100 %

of Gmc. loanwords reconstruable to Proto-Finnic

τ (?) Germ. (oder älteres/jüngeres) LW

τ Almost identical percentages with (?) Germ. LWand (?) Jüngeres LW

Stem vowel correspondences:examples

Unambiguous Gmc. originals of Fi. *u (ü)

a 12

an 2

ō 6

ōn 4

i 1

u 13

ī 0

ē 1

total 39

Stem vowel correspondencesUnambiguous Gmc. originals of Fi. *a/ä

Unambiguous Gmc. originals of Fi. *o

-a- (%) -an- (%) -ō- (%) -ōn- (%) None ofthese Words total

Noun 18 (14) 3 (2) 16 (13) 15 (12) 4 (3) 126

Adj. 1 (14) 1 (14) 1 (14) 1 (14) 0 (0) 7

Verb 0 (0) 4 (29) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 14

All 18 (12) 8 (5) 17 (12) 16 (11) 4 (3) 147

-a- (%) -an- (%) -ō- (%) -ōn- (%) None ofthese Words total

Noun 136 (36) 33 (9) 28 (7) 7 (2) 3 (1) 378

Adj. 36 (61) 0 (0) 1 (2) 0 (0) 1 (2) 59

Verb 8 (12) 49 (71) 3 (4) 33 (48) 2 (3) 69

All 175 (34) 56 (11) 29 (6) 7 (1) 0 (0) 509

Stem vowel (2nd syllable)correspondences: Finnic *o

τ A significant number of Finnic -a/ä stems haveunambiguously a Germanic loan original in either*-a or *-an

τ In contrast, Finnic -o stems rarely have an unambiguousGermanic original in a certain stem class

Stem vowel (2nd syllable)correspondences: Finnic *o

τ In many cases, there are several possible source wordsand derivative variants with different vowels

τ For example:

τ Fi. *inta, *into ‘excitement’⇒ Gmc. *enþōn-, *enþijōn-

τ Fi. *kupu, *kupo ‘dome, cupola; crop’⇒ Gmc. *xūƀōn-,*xūƀa-z / *kūƀa-z / *xupi-z

τ Fi. *laikka, *laikko ‘rent’⇒ Gmc. *laika-z, *laika-, *laikō

τ How do the varying correspondences behavestatistically?

Stem vowel correspondencesPossible Gmc. originals of Fi. *a/ä

Possible Gmc. originals of Fi. *o

-a- (%) -an- (%) -ō- (%) -ōn- (%) None ofthese Words total

Noun 57 (45) 28 (22) 43 (34) 49 (39) 6 (5) 126

Adj. 2 (29) 1 (14) 3 (43) 2 (29) 0 (0) 7

Verb 1 (7) 9 (64) 0 (0) 7 (50) 0 (0) 14

All 60 (41) 38 (26) 46 (31) 58 (39) 6 (4) 147

-a- (%) -an- (%) -ō- (%) -ōn- (%) None ofthese Words total

Noun 251 (66) 95 (25) 82 (22) 57 (15) 3 (1) 378

Adj. 50 (85) 6 (10) 4 (7) 6 (10) 1 (2) 59

Verb 8 (12) 47 (68) 3 (4) 31 (45) 2 (3) 69

All 310 (61) 148 (29) 89 (17) 94 (18) 6 (1) 509

Stem vowel correspondences:observations

τ Finnic *a/ä-stems mainly have Gmc. *-a/-an-stems aspossible originals

τ In comparison, Finnic *o-stems have significantly moreGmc. *-ō-/-ōn-stems as possible originals

τ Conclusion: Finnic *o-stems must to some extent reflectthe vowel quality of Gmc. originals in *-ō-/-ōn-

τ Part of the loan stems in *o must be explaineddifferently: e.g. secondary derivatives in Finnic, orreflections of Pre-Gmc. *o or its Gmc. successor *a withpossibly labialized pronunciation

Stratification experiment

τ By using age-indicating sound correspondences of theloan items, we can ideally sort the loanword corpus intoan age order

τ Could be used to 1) show the relative chronology ofdifferent sound substitution types,2) point out deviating items (false etymologies?),3) test the reliability of each phonological feature as anage indicator, and4) possibly even find new indicators/rules

τ In general, visualization of the data reflecting ourcurrent conceptions of sound history and possible loansubstitutions between Finnic and Germanic

Stratification experiment

τ Semi-automatically tag each loanword with thephonological / sound substitutional features present in it(automatic tagging + manual checking)

τ Each feature can have two or more values, e.g.

τ F_x: 1) PG x > PF k, 2) PG x > PF h

τ F_ō: 1) ō > a/ä 2) ō > o 3) ō > oo

Fi PFi PGmc Eval F_x F_ōkavio *kapja *xōfa-z ?g 1 1

hode *hote- *xōđō- g 2 2huora *hoora *xōrōn- g/n 2 3

Stratification experiment

τ Different values are often indicative of differentborrowing times (as a result of diachronic changes in thephonological/phonetic systems both in the source and inthe destination language)⇓ word groups with differentfeature values define different chronological strata

τ Sorting the loanword items with the goal that the valuesof each feature column is in an ascending numericalorder, we ideally get the items in the order of theirborrowing time

Stratification experiment:data and classificationτ Entries with LägLoS’s evaluations

“(?) Germ. (oder älteres/jüngeres) LW” (total 970)

τ 26 features (sound correspondence or structural) with1 – 4 different value alternants for each(not all features supposed to be age-indicative)

A. 1) s > h 2) s > sB. 1) st- > s 2) st- > tC. 1) x- > k 2) x- > hD. 1) -Tj- > cc 2) -Tj- > Cj 3) -Tj- > ti 4) -Tj- > ttiE. 1) z > h 2) z > r [not word-finally]F. 1) ō > a/ä 2) ō > o 3) ō > ooG. 1) ē > ä 2) ē > ee 3) ē > a 4) ē > aaH. 1) ī > i 2) ī > iiI. 1) ū > u 2) ū > uuJ. 1) e > e 2) e > i [germ. e > i /_nC, _{i,j,u}]K. 1) ai > ei 2) ai > äi 3) ai > aiL. 1) k/p/t > k/p/t 2) k/p/t > kk/pp/ttN. 1) ViCC > VCC 2) ViC(C) > ViCC[etc...]

Stratification experimentτ A sample of tentatively sorted data

Stratification experiment:methodological problems

τ The problem is to develop an algorithm for finding theoptimal sorting order of unideal data (with conflictingorderings)

τ So far, testing with a simple column-by-column sorting(customized for sparse data, i.e. ignoring empty cells)

τ Not too good results: the highest-prioritized features(columns sorted last) easily mess up the ordering ofprevious features

τ A better solution would compare different orderings andfind the one with minimal net sorting error (possiblyweighted to favor certain features in respect to others)

τ Development work to be done or search for a suitablealgorighm in information technology publications?

Stratification experiment:data problems

τ Apart from conflicting data, there is a problem with datasparsity: few Germanic loanwords have several, if anyclear age defining features

τ Meaningful sorting for most items might not be achievable,the order would be a very rough estimate at best

τ Another, perhaps better basis for sorting and visualizationcould be assigning time spans for each item (terminus postquem / ante quem)

Reference literature

τ Aikio, Ante & Aikio, Aslak 2001: Heimovaelluksista jatkuvuuteen: suomalaisenväestöhistorian tutkimuksen pirstoutuminen. – Muinaistutkija 4/2001: 2–21.

τ Hofstra, Tette 1985: Ostseefinnisch und Germanisch. Frühe Lehnbeziehungen imnördlichen Ostseeraum im Lichte der Forschung seit 1961. Groningen:Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen.

τ Kallio, Petri 2012: The prehistoric Germanic loanword strata in Finnic. – RihoGrünthal & Petri Kallio (eds.), A linguistic map of prehistoric Northern Europe.Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 266. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.225–238.

τ Kallio, Petri 2015: The stratigraphy of the Germanic loanwords in Finnic. – John OleAskedal & Hans Frede Nielsen (eds.), Early Germanic languages in contact. North-Western European Language Evolution Supplement Series 27. Amsterdam –Philadelphia, PA. 23–38.

τ Kuokkala, Juha 2017 (forthcoming): Finnic-Saamic labial vowels of non-initialsyllables: An etymological evaluation. – Περὶ ὀρθότητος ἐτύμων. Uusiutuvauralilainen etymologia. Uralica Helsingiensia 11. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto &Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.

τ LÄGLOS = Lexikon der älteren germanischen Lehnwörter in den ostseefinnischenSprachen. I–III. A. D. Kylstra & Sirkka-Liisa Hahmo & Tette Hofstra & Osmo Nikkilä.Amsterdam: Rodopi. 1991–2012.

τ Palviainen, Santeri 2004: Die germanischen n-Stämme und ihre Reflexe in denostseefinnischen Lehnwörtern. – Irma Hyvärinen, Petri Kallio & Jarmo Korhonen(eds), Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen: Festschrift für JormaKoivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag. Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki63. Helsinki. 223–233.

τ Sundberg, Niina 2001: Germanische Lehnwörter auf -a, -o und -as im Finnischen.Pro gradu. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto.