Why Do We Call Them These Names? Part Three

This will be the last part on the Germanic tribes and terms I've chosen to cover. There were many, many more, but these tribes and terms covered in Parts One, Two, and Three are the names most people are familiar with in some context.

Burgundians-These were people from a Germanic tribe that spoke what is classified by linguists as being "East Germanic." I included them because their name gave us the name of the famous red wine, Burgundy, which was derived from the province in France named after the Burgundians. I had some difficulty finding much on the tribal name, but it "seems" that the "burg" part equates with German "Berg," which means "mountain." (Of course, in English, we have "iceberg," a borrowing from German "Eisberg," [pronounced as if ice-bear with a "g" on the end]which literally means "ice mountain.") This would give the notion that this tribe lived in the high country. Old English had "Burgenda." They seem to have lived in southern Scandinavia, in what is now Sweden, and then moved to an island, Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, before moving into eastern Europe. In Old Norse, the island of Bornholm was called "Burgendarholmr;" that is, "the island of the Burgundians," and the Old Norse form has now been contracted into "Bornholm." The Romans picked up their name and thus Latin had "Burgundiones." The name was given to the wine from "Burgundy" during the 1600s.

Goths-This was another East Germanic speaking tribe. Old English had "Gota" ("Gotan," plural). Some sources feel that the term simply meant "men," as Old Norse had "gotar," which meant "men," but this is not certain. The Romans used the term "Goth" for these people, and the "th" of Latin was later adopted to the English form. During the Middle Ages, the term "Gothic" was used interchangeably with "Germanic," and this in turn brought the use of the term "Gothic" to the art and architecture of northern Europe, and later, to the writings of authors who used these settings for their works.

Frisians-While there are differing dialects for Frisian, many, if not most, linguists say that Frisian is the closest living relative of English, followed by Saxon, the Low German dialect in the north of Germany (see Part One for "Saxon"). In Old English they were "Frisa" (sing.), "Frisan" (plural). Frisian, German (both Low and High), Dutch, and English are all classified as West Germanic. The name seems to come from their hair style (but only their hairdresser knows for sure), as in Old English, "fris" meant "curly" (we still have "frizzle") and Old Frisian had "frisle," "curly hair." The general area they inhabited* (and still inhabit, to some extent) is really something of the ancestral home of English, as this was the same area occupied by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes before their invasion of Britain. Some Frisians also participated in this invasion. I wonder if they had the "frizzies?"

* Stretching from the southern part of modern Denmark, across northern Germany and into northeastern Holland, and all of the offshore islands. The Germans call the area "Friesland," the "land of the Frisians." Interestingly, just as their close English cousins, the Frisians, more especially the East Frisians, are known for their tea!!!