The German Question, Part Three

While we now have the beginnings of “German” history at this point, 9 A.D., that history is still not separate and distinct from the history of many of the Germanic tribes. As the Roman Empire declined, the Germanic tribes pushed into imperial lands, including into Gaul, a Roman province, much of which equates to modern France, but conquered by the Romans long before this time period. The Franks, a Germanic tribe that seems to have taken over a number of closely related and allied Germanic tribes, conquered much of northern Gaul (I guess you could say, “they had a lot of Gaul”), which also included a part of what is now Belgium. The Franks established themselves as a formidable group, and Karl, one of their kings, later had the honorary title of “the Great” added to his name. Karl is better known to English speakers by the French rendering of his name, “Charlemagne.”* As the Frankish lands grew, Karl was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by the Pope in 800 A.D. in Rome (the title was symbolic, rather than literal). The Germans see this as the beginning of The Holy Roman Empire,** which, in the early 1500s, came to be called “The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation;” thus, Germans consider Karl as “their” first emperor. Karl lived for the most part in the city of Aachen, in the modern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), and he was buried there upon his death. By the time of his death in 814 A.D., Charlemagne’s lands consisted of much of Western Europe, including Italy. His son, Ludwig (Louis),*** actually shared the imperial throne with his father for the last year of Charlemagne’s life.**** A couple of years after Ludwig/Louis died, an agreement was reached to divide the empire between his three surviving sons (The Treaty of Verdun, in 843 A.D.). Charles (I’ll use the English name forms), also known to history as “Charles the Bald,” was given much of what is modern France. Louis, also known to history as “Louis the German,” was given much of what are modern central and southern Germany, Austria, and much of Switzerland. Lothair, was given what are essentially (in modern geographic terms) the northern half of Italy, eastern France (including Alsace and Lorraine, which have a big part in our developing story), the western part of Switzerland, northwest Germany and much of what are termed “the Low Countries.” This division of territory, while granting some peace in those times, set the stage for fierce struggles in the future. (A Word History is below the notes)

*Charlemagne was the French rendering of Latin “Carolus Magnus.” In German his name is “Karl der Grosse.” While the French and Germans have had many disputes over the centuries, Karl is the one prominent person they share as part of a common history. The language that developed in Gaul during the Roman period was heavily based upon Latin, and though the conquering Franks spoke a Germanic dialect (Frankish), eventually that dialect was absorbed into the Latin form spoken in the conquered lands, but not before Frankish loaned a fair number of words to its Latin-speaking subjects, including the terms “France” and “French.”

** The term “Holy Roman Empire” was not used until the 900s.

*** I’ve seen his name as both, but I “assume” he was called by the Germanic form “Ludwig,” at least at first.

**** Ludwig/Louis, who later came to be known as “Louis the Pious,” was the only surviving “legitimate” son of Charlemagne.

                                                                   

WORD HISTORY:

Game- We have two distinct words "game" in English. (1) By far the most common is "fun and amusing pastime, contest, sport," which is a compound going back to Old Germanic "ga," a collective prefix, and "mann," which meant "person," and which is also the ancestor of the English word "man." The notion behind the Germanic compound is "people participating together." This gave Old English "gamen," which meant "fun, amusement." The other Germanic dialects/languages had similar forms long ago, with Old High German, for instance, having "gaman," which meant "glee," and Old Frisian (a very close relative of Old English) having "game," but most have now died out. One source mentions Swedish as still having "gamman" and Danish still with "gammen," and although I could not find them in dictionaries, they may not be considered "standard" in either language, but rather as dialect words). In English, by the late 1200s and early 1300s the word took on the meaning of "contest played by a set of rules" (this obviously retained the notion of "participation for amusement"), and not much later the idea of "hunting wild animals" was added, which then transferred the term for the activity to the object (wild animals) of the sport; thus we have "game" (noun) used for "wild animals," not that the term isn't used for humans at times, too. This also gave us the form "gamey" during the mid 1800s to denote "the taste or flavor of wild game." And since wild animals were (and still are) hunted in contest, the term "fair game" developed for anything not off limits (supposedly first used in the 1820s). Also, during the early 1700s the sense of "spirited, feisty, brave, plucky" developed as an adjective, seemingly from the spirit of wild animals to defend themselves, and perhaps also from game birds used in "fighting events" (cock fighting). By the way, the spelling "gamen" (and the variant "gammon") remained with some in English clear into the 1500s, and is still with us in "backgammon."

(2) The second word "game," meaning "lame," came into common English usage from a dialect in the north Midlands of England during the latter part of the 1700s as "gam." The origins are uncertain, but an old French dialect word (which presumably would have been brought by the Normans), "gambe," has been suggested. It meant "leg," and since "game leg" was/is a common term associated with "game," that "could" be the source. And while I could not find this term, one source suggests "gambi," supposedly an old French word, as a possible source, since it gives the meaning as "crooked." Whatever the source, "gammy," a non-standard word once used in England, developed from it in the 1800s, and meant "bad."