Note To Part 19; German Question

I just want to add that one of the original members of the Swiss Confederation was the canton of "Schwyz" (pronounced pretty much like "shvitz," with a short "i," and it is not hard to see, or hear, how English got "Swiss"). The name of the country, Switzerland, is derived from that name. The standard German rendering of Switzerland is "Schweiz," which is pronounced like above, but with a long "i" sound instead. A "canton" was a term used for a region.

The German Question, Part Nineteen

The Swiss Move Toward Independence

Just a little information about the Swiss to start off: Modern Switzerland is some two-thirds German speaking, with the remainder being French, Italian, and Romansh speaking, in that order.* Like the other German areas of Europe, the Swiss speak a German dialect of their own, as well as standard German. Actually their dialect is diverse from region to region, and I'm not sure all varieties are mutually intelligible; that is, that people in one region can fully understand people from other areas. Standard German is the link for all of the Swiss, and is also their connection to other German speaking people in Europe. Now....

With so much of the area that became modern Switzerland being mountainous, some of the local communities banded together and cooperated in trade with one another, and in helping to secure the mountainous terrain in their vicinity. The German-dominated Holy Roman Empire gave these districts the special privilege of answering only to the emperor, with no princes or dukes involved in their rule. This circumstance, and their difficult geography, helped to foster a certain independence among these mountaineers. This all transpired in the period from the late 1200s into the 1400s. Gradually other mountain communities joined "The Swiss Confederation."**

Remember, if you've been following this series, the Holy Roman Empire, or Old German Empire, was not really a strong entity, and the individual states had much leeway in their own dealings. The Habsburg family coveted much of the territory of the Swiss Confederation, and they sought to take it by force at times. The Swiss and the Habsburgs fought a number of battles and wars over time, but initially, the German Emperor (from either the Hohenstaufen or Luxemburg families) supported the Swiss, maintaining their special relationship within the empire. When the Habsburg family took over as German emperors, they tried to use their position to further their own interests (not the empire's) with the Swiss and others. The Swiss were not pushovers, and they fought valiantly against the Habsburg forces, inflicting a decisive defeat on the Habsburgs in 1499, which resulted in the Habsburgs agreeing to the Swiss maintaining their independent position within the empire. It was only a matter of time before the Swiss would gain true independence.

* Romansch is a language of Latin derivation, descending from the Latin spoken by Roman soldiers and settlers during the period of the Roman Empire. It is closely related to the language of southern France, Monaco, and just over into the Italian Riviera, called Provencal.

** "Eidgenossenschaft" in German, which means roughly "Oath Membership," or "Confederation." (See "Word History") The "genosse(n)" part by itself means, "comrade, buddy," but also, "a member of some cooperative group." English once had the closely related "geneat," which also meant, "comrade, buddy," but which, during feudalism, took on the additional meaning, "vassal;" that is, "a tenant obligated by agreement to serve a lord." The German "ss" instead of the English "t" in the German word is due to a sound shift which came to dominate the high dialects where the "t" sound became "s" or "ss." For example, English has "vat" (originally spelled with an "f"), but German has "Fass;" English has "kettle," but German has "Kessel."  

WORD HISTORY:
Oath-This word has a "shaky" early history, but it "possibly" goes back to Indo European "oyet," which meant something like, "meaningful statement." "Apparent forms" are only in Celtic and Germanic, which makes me wonder if one or the other was the original source, as Germanic people and Celtic people had much contact and mingling long ago. ^ Old Germanic had "aithaz," which then gave Old English "ath," with a long "a" sound. By the Middle Ages it was "ooth" or "oth," before the modern version. The Germanic relatives of English all have similar words for "oath": German has "Eid," pronounced as if "it" with a long "i" sound, Low German has "eed," Dutch has "eed," Swedish, Norwegian and Danish all have "ed," and Icelandic has "eið" (=eith). West Frisian once used "eed," but from what I can tell, it is archaic, and in more modern times they use a form related to English "swear" (as in "swear a promise").

^ I say "apparent forms," because there are some "possible" relatives in other Indo European languages, but it is unclear if these forms are from the same source or coincidental, as the meanings vary and it is hard to make a connection as to how the varied meanings would have come about. 

A Sunny Sunday

Sunday-Well you can't do a word history of Sunday without doing a word history of "SUN."
This goes back to Indo European "su-wen/sawel," both, apparently, meaning "sun." Reading various sources, it seems there is no reliable info as to why there are two forms. Just my own "possibility" of why, it could be how the words were used. No matter how ancient the people, the "sun" has always been important, after all, we can't exist without it. Anyway, the Old West Germanic* offshoot from Indo European came from the "suwen" form, giving West Germanic "sunnon." This then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "sunne." This spelling continued for centuries, and it seems that our modern form didn't really takeover until the 1500s. The other West Germanic relatives of English have similar forms: Frisian has "sinne," Dutch has "zon" (as does the German dialect directly across the border, which, not surprisingly, is mutually intelligible with Dutch), many northern Low German dialects have "sünn," and standard German has "Sonne."**

Of course "Sunday" means "day of the sun," and in Anglo-Saxon it was "sunnandaeg." Notice it was not capitalized, and although we take it for granted today, our weekdays did not receive such until the 1600s!!! Our close relative, German, has "Sonntag," and close relative, Dutch, has "zondag," other close relatives, Danish and Norwegian, have "søndag," and Swedish has "söndag."

* The North Germanic languages (and most other Indo European languages) used the other form, "sawel," and this gave Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish "sol," as their word for "sun."

** All nouns in standard German are capitalized.

The German Question, Part Eighteen

An Iron Hand and A Famous Expression

Most readers probably have never heard of this man, but he is certainly one of the more interesting characters in German history. His name was Götz von Berlichingen (proper first name was "Gottfried"). He was a knight who formed a band of mercenary soldiers who sold their services to various entities throughout the Holy Roman Empire (the Old German Empire) from about the early 1500s until about the middle of the century. When he wasn't fighting for someone else, he was essentially a robber baron, robbing various nobles, or capturing them and holding them for ransom. He also had quarrels with Church authorities, mainly in his home region of Württemberg (main city: Stuttgart) and in the neighboring region Franken (main city: Nürnberg, usually rendered as Nuremberg, in English).

He was involved in many wars and military actions, and in the early 1500s, he lost his right hand to cannon fire. He had an iron hand and lower arm made for him, which was far in advance of such devices for those times, especially since he could hold a sword in it. It is still in existence in Germany. The only thing I can say is, since it was made of iron, can you imagine how strong his upper arm was? Wow! His iron hand, his reputation for quarreling with Church authorities (who were often seen as supporting the wealthy and being corrupt), and his robbing of various nobles, made him a folk hero to many Germans.

To my knowledge, it wasn't until a couple of hundred years after his death (by natural causes in 1562), when his memoirs were published, that another event popularized von Berlichingen once again. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a prominent German writer born in Frankfurt, wrote a play about Götz. Using the memoirs, Goethe included a story where von Berlichingen was besieged by troops of the Bishop of Bamberg. When an officer read a request from the Bishop for Götz to surrender, he answered by saying that the bishop could...ah...kiss his....ah...behind! (It loses something in the translation..haha!!!)

WORD HISTORY:
He/His-This word traces back to Indo European "ki/ko," which meant "this," in the sense, "this here." This produced the Old Germanic offshoot "khi," which then gave Old English "he," when the "k" sound died out (likely not emphasized anyway). This became the third person singular form (male). It also gave Dutch "hij," Low German "he," the German dialect near the border with Holland "hae." Interestingly, the Indo European and Old Germanic root gave German the first part of their word for "today," which is "heu(te)," which literally means "this day," and it was "heudaeg" in Old English. His is simply the possessive form of "he;" that is, "he + s." This came from Old Germanic "khisa." It gradually replaced Old English "sin" (pronounced with a long i"), which was our word for "his." Modern German still has "sein" (long "i") for "his."

Obama: Oil, The GOP & The Media

Regarding the oil mess in the Gulf, the President is hemmed in by politics and the political climate in the country at this point in time. What I mean is, when this first happened, BP, the oil giant doing the drilling and reaping the profits from the well, issued statements saying that things weren't all that serious. It wasn't until the live camera showed Americans (and the World) what was really happening that everyone could see that BP's statement of "not serious" was something that definitely was "not serious." If the administration had ordered BP to do certain things, just imagine the reaction from some Republicans, especially the hard rightwing: "They're trying to take over the country!" "They want to order private companies around, is your company next?" "They actually want to regulate the oil industry!" Or, if government authorities had essentially assumed control and started doing whatever was thought necessary to contain the situation (something I don't believe they actually had the overall capability of doing, at least not immediately), then those same Republicans would have said, "They're bailing out a private company with taxpayer money!" If you're a hardline Republican, admit that what I'm saying is right.

When it became obvious that the magnitude of the disaster was much greater than "not serious," some Republicans then turned to: "Where's the government?" Talk about having it both ways! Which way is this, GOP? Too much government or not enough? After 28 years of government bashing (prior to the Obama Administration), and executive control of government for 20 of those 28 years, the government has been run into the ground, especially on the regulatory side, where so many on the political right have prevailed with "the best regulation, is no regulation!" This political situation is a valid point, and does give the President a little "cover," but not much, in my book.

With hurricane inflicted damages, for instance, the government should move immediately, and actually BEFORE the storm hits an area, since hurricanes don't just develop in the time it takes to watch "Sixty Minutes," which would be...let's see...an hour. See! Give me time and I can figure things out. Besides, hurricanes aren't owned and operated by BP, Walmart, UPS, or even The Weather Channel. The point is, "natural disasters" require government at all levels. In this present situation, we have a private company, BP, which not only is private, but based in a foreign country, the United Kingdom. Hmm, if I were one of those rightwing conspiracy nuts, I might say, "I think they're trying to get even with America for what happened in 1776! And furthermore, I think Obama is in on it. Just think, his father was from Kenya....and Kenya was once a British colony! Ah ha! There's the connection!" (If these folks spent half as much time devoted to helping humanity, as they spend on such nonsense, the world would be a much better place!)

Now, Obama and his administration have not handled the overall situation well, in my opinion. Blaming the media doesn't cut it with me (and that goes for BOTH political parties!). The media is what it is, and he and his people have to deal with it. The other day the President mentioned that he was on the Gulf coast not long after the spill happened, but that the media didn't cover it. Okay folks, the idea that the White House couldn't arrange media coverage of a presidential trip to a potential (at that time) disaster site is nonsense! Further, the President needs to toughen his hide, as he appears far too thin-skinned in this 24/7 media coverage age. Some in the media have criticized his lack of "anger," and while I understand that, he just doesn't seem to be much of the kind of guy to go bonkers, even if he knew "whose ass to kick," to quote the President, but he damned well better learn that role, as this is about governing, not campaigning for president.* Part of the job of being President is expressing "our" collective emotions, something this President seems uncomfortable in doing. He needs to forget the "I'm going to change Washington" nonsense, too. During the campaign, he and his aides were able to get around the media to some degree by going directly to supporters via the 'Net, and this may have instilled a sense of "I'll change Washington." Not so now! Further, there's no question the media had a love affair with Obama back during the campaign, just as McCain had their love back in 2000, but now, they want to get a story or develop a story further, and if Obama and his folks think they can change this, they will suffer the consequences.**

Americans tend to like bold action. If the President had really taken charge, put BP on the spot right off by demanding "up front money" to cover containment/clean-up costs and reparations for Gulf coast businesses, do you think the public would have ignored Republican claims that "he's trying to take over the country?" Or would we agree with the rightwing, because we wouldn't have known all the things we have come to know now?

Having said all of the above, "if" the spill is soon stopped and the oil spread contained, Obama may come out looking better than Randy thinks he will, but the effects of this whole situation, and I'm NOT saying that he could have waved a magic wand and made things right, are potentially going to last for years, and not only environmentally and economically, but perhaps even in our dealings with the UK. Such things can seriously diminish a president's reputation. (A Word History is below the notes)

* Ronald Reagan had much the same overall "get along" temperament as Obama, but Reagan came from the world of Hollywood, and he understood how images can have an impact on the public and how the media (even well before 24/7 coverage in those days) wants a story, and how they develop a narrative. I just forget the exact incident, but Israel had done something that made Reagan and his administration look foolish, and it didn't take long before a stern-faced Reagan was shown (in still pictures) on the telephone to the Israeli prime minister. Did he fake it? (the anger mode, I mean) Maybe, but regardless, he understood what the situation required, and how the presidency is more than just about being the chief executive or commander-in-chief. And, let's not forget Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain."

** Herbert Hoover, a Republican, won the presidency without ever having held elected public office. He was very bright and was a hands on kind of executive; after all, he was an engineer, a profession that often requires micro-management. Trapped by the collapse of the economy during the opening years of the Great Depression, Hoover failed to grasp the public leadership role of the presidency. Instead of trying to demonstrate his concern for average Americans struggling to get by, he distanced himself from such "staged" events. He loved children, and one story went something like this: One day when out for his daily walk, he came upon a group of young boys playing baseball. The boys came over to see the President, and one climbed up on his knee. The usually "stiff" president showed his "warm" side. One of his aides told the President that he should come back tomorrow and that he would arrange for photographers to be there for pictures to show the human side of the beleaguered chief executive. Hoover refused, not wanting to stoop to things he saw as gimmicks. The public became very disconnected from Hoover, and he lost the next election in a landslide. (I'm not saying this was the only reason for his defeat!)

WORD HISTORY:
Gulf-The origins of this word are uncertain, but Greek had "kolphos/kolpos," which gave Latin "colfos," which then became Italian "golfo," and then Old French "golfe." All of these forms had similar meanings: "bay, gulf," but initially in Greek it meant "bosom," before taking on the "bay/gulf" meaning, supposedly taken from the enclosed nature of a bosom (a "gulf" being a relatively enclosed body of water). In Latin it also took on the added meaning of "chasm/abyss," which seems to have been passed on to its offspring in Italian and French, and carried over to English when it borrowed the word from French during the 1300s, first as "goulf," before moving on to the modern spelling.

The German Question, Part Seventeen

While remaining in safety in Saxony, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German,* complete with his take on the meaning of some passages. Since there were many dialects of German, with northern speakers and southern speakers not easily being able to understand one another to any great degree, he mainly used a dialect literally in the middle from his own region (Saxony and Thuringia), and which was able to be understood by most German speakers. This dialect was prevalent in government and church circles in Saxony, but he also used some "high" dialect in his translation ("high" meaning from elevated areas, not "high" in the social sense), and he tried to make the flow of the translation be of common speech and not the more rigid ecclesiastical terminology. This "German Bible," coupled with the printing technology of those times, permitted wide distribution of Luther's work, and brought him a growing number of adherents to his beliefs. No question about it, this translation laid the foundation of the modern German language, as it spread throughout literary and educational circles, and gradually it  made headway against the Low German dialects (again "low" meaning from plains and low-lying areas) of the northern part of Germany. So, if you've ever studied German, and you cursed all of those grammatical rules, suffixes and changes to verbs, adjectives, and even some nouns, you can give at least some of the blame to Luther (hahaha, but remember, English once did similar, but then simplified). Of course, if you're Catholic too, you might give him all of the blame (get it? Luther founded Lutheranism, so if you're Catholic.....oh never mind). He then did a translation of the Old Testament, which was also published a bit later. This overall move toward a "standard German" language helped foster German nationalism and a desire for a truly unified nation.**

It should be noted that Luther was also known for his anti-Jewish views, and some, if not many, historians attribute Luther's views and his tremendous influence as contributing to the rise in anti-Jewish feelings in Germany in his times. His arguments against Jews were something later used by the Nazis. (A Word History is below the notes)

* I'm not a Biblical scholar, but in all my years of reading German history, it was my understanding that Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German. When I was checking some info for this article, I read in one source that he translated these books from Latin; that is, from a previous translation from Greek into Latin, but other sources noted that he translated the Christian books from the Greek edition done by Dutch Catholic theologian Erasmus. Luther had studied Greek in his younger days. The Old Testament, also known by some as the "Jewish Bible," was originally in Hebrew.

** Many may find this hard to believe, but Germans speaking only their own dialects, and not standard German (see separate note below), persisted until well into the 20th Century. Naturally, as education became more and more widespread, more and more German speakers learned standard German, although that does not necessarily mean that they stopped using their own dialects too. Many Germans to this day take pride in their regional dialect, and they continue to use it among family and friends, using standard German for business and travel, for visitors outside of their region, or to listen to the radio or television. The post-World War Two era brought universal education to rural areas and small villages, and along with that education came the requirement to learn standard German. About 25 years ago, a postwar immigrant acquaintance of mine from Austria told me that one time he was at the train station in Stuttgart (I believe in the 1970s, if memory serves me right). An older man came up to him asking something, and he asked the man to speak German, but the man only spoke the local dialect, called "Schwäbisch," or "Swabian," in English. It is related to Alsatian (Elsässisch) and Swiss German (Schwyzerdütsch/ Schwiizertüütsch, depending upon...ah...dialect. And you thought English was tough!). Today, I'd find it hard to believe that anyone from Germany, Austria, or the German part of Switzerland (and probably Luxembourg) who doesn't speak standard German, unless perhaps they are very elderly, and even then they would have had such exposure to standard German that they would almost have to be able to understand most of it, if not speak it fluently.

Note: We don't really have anything quite like the German dialects in English, at least not in American English, and likely not in England either, although they are more pronounced there (the pun is not really intended, but what the hell). Perhaps that's because English itself is derived from some of those similar northern dialects, "Anglo-Saxon," from the Continent, which then transferred across to Britain. Many of the northern German dialects trace back to the Saxons and related Germanic tribes, just as English does, but the differences in German dialects from other areas can be stark. The German dialects should not necessarily be confused with variations in spoken German, since just as Americans or Englishmen speak the same basic English differently, so do Germans vary in their ways of speaking German, and certainly the regional dialects can have a major influence on how standard German is spoken.

WORD HISTORY:
Soul-I didn't find a solid Indo European root for this word, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. Old Germanic had "saiwalo," with the notion of "the spiritual part of a person." Some etymologists suggest that this might be further linked to the Old Germanic word for "sea," which was "saiwaz," as the ancient Germanic people believed a person's soul derived from or went to the sea after death. This is possible, as we certainly see "spirits" as "flowing" along, much like water, and there could be a connection. From Germanic "saiwalo" came Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sawol," with the same basic meaning of "spiritual part of a person." This later became "soul," and by the 900s, it had come to mean "the spirit of a dead person." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Seele," Low German has "Seel," West Frisian "siel," Dutch has "ziel," Swedish has "själ," Danish has "sjael," Icelandic has "sál," and Norwegian has "sjel."

The German Question, Part Sixteen

The Germans have been affected by religious strife more than some other European peoples. The reason for this is simple, Germans themselves have been very divided in their denominational choices. This is a very complex and important part of German history, and I want to try to keep it simple, although I may fail in that attempt, but we'll see.....

Over the centuries leading up to the 1500s, the Church* had become corrupted in the views of a number of average citizens. Money flowed to the Church and to its representatives throughout Christendom, often in exchange for forgiveness of sins, real or perceived. While other matters of the Church came into question, like what the balance should be between Church and secular governance, the upheaval that came was centered around the question, "how much money does one need to save their soul?" Ever so gradually concern for the individual had been rising throughout Europe, and this in the face of the feudal system that had been in place, where local rulers dominated the landscape, and individuals were relegated to serving the interests of these rulers. These rulers were often tied to the Church, and indeed, the Church itself had rulers who literally controlled portions of territory in the German inhabited, or ruled, areas.

Undoubtedly many of the criticisms of the Church had been around for quite some time, but with Gutenberg  popularizing movable type, the written word spread far and wide, and in German, not just the Latin of the Church, and some average people actually wanted to learn how to read so they could discover more about life and the world to which they had been thus far exposed. Those who could read spread the word to those not so fortunate. While there were numerous leaders of the Reformation,** Martin Luther,*** a Christian monk and theologian from a German area called "Saxony" ("Sachsen" in German),**** challenged Church practices and published his famous "95 Theses" (in 1517) to lay out his ideas on reform. Two very important ideas of Luther were: each person can achieve salvation without the aid (intercession) of some Church representative, and second, that the German princes^ should reduce Papal authority in Germany. Luther's ideas spread throughout Germany and he was eventually ex-communicated by the pope and he and his teachings were outlawed by the German emperor, Karl V (Charles V), who backed the Papacy. Many of the German princes, however, backed Luther (as did much of the public), and indeed he was provided sanctuary and out-and-out protection by Prince Frederick of Saxony. "Lutheranism," as it came to be called, gained large followings in much of northeastern and central Germany, something that persists to this very day.

Luther's ideas stirred the general public, which wanted social reforms to help alleviate their depressed conditions.^^ Reformers far more radical than Luther incited the public, and this led to the "Peasant War of 1524/25" (Bauernkrieg, in German),^^^ which essentially was a rebellion, mainly in the southern and southwestern German lands, and which was finally suppressed by the nobles, with the SUPPORT of Luther.

To be continued.... (A Word History is below the notes)

* The "Church" now meaning the Christian element based in Rome and ruled by the Papacy, as there was the Eastern Christian Church by this time, too.

** "The Reformation" came to be a term used to describe the movement to "reform" the Church and it is the same term in German, although the pronunciation is as if, "ray-for-maw-tsee- own." It is a Latin-based word, but the specific religious meaning came via Martin Luther.

*** For those interested in words/names, it seems the family name had previously been spelled "Luder." As I've noted in other articles, "d" and "t" in the Germanic languages was/is often interchangeable, so to speak, and the change in spelling to the "th" didn't change much, as German does not have the "th" pronunciation of English, but pronounces such as "t;" thus the name in German is pronounced like "looter," a pronunciation which might well please some "anti-looters" ... I mean anti-Luthers. 

**** Since the end of World War Two, Luther's part of Saxony has been part of the German state called "Sachsen-Anhalt," although the separate state, "Sachsen," also still exists, and to confuse matters even more, another state, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), also exists.

^ Local and regional German rulers carried a wide variety of titles (for example: kings, princes, archdukes), but they were collectively known as "the German princes," regardless of their technical titles.

^^ For example, many people wanted certain waterways and hunting areas controlled as "public areas," rather than by private owners who could extract huge payments for the right to use the areas.

^^^ "Peasant" does not have the same "unflattering" meaning in German as it does in English; at least, in American English. English speakers use the word "farmer" in much the same way as German speakers use "peasant" ("Bauer," which can be translated as "farmer" too), and if you call farmers "peasants" in English, it will likely be considered an insult by many, perhaps all.

WORD HISTORY:
Way-This goes back to Indo European "wegh," which had the notion of "movement, travel, ride." The Old Germanic offshoot was "wegaz," which meant "path, road, course," and then later produced Old English "weg," with the same meanings. The "g" sound died out at some point in the Middle Ages, leaving modern English with "way," just as happened with "daeg," which became modern "day." The other Germanic languages have: German and Dutch both have "weg" ("Weg," in German, as all German nouns are capitalized), Low German has "Weg/Weeg," West Frisian "wei," Norwegian "vei," Danish "vej," Swedish "väg;" and Icelandic "vegur," all with the same basic meanings as their English relative.

Thunderous Thursday

The history of our word "Thursday:"

Old Germanic had "thonarus daga," which meant "thunder's day" or "day of thunder." The old Germanic god "Thor" got his name by way of the same Germanic base, "thunraz/thonara," that produced the word "thunder;" thus he was "god of thunder." Thor was the eldest son of the main Germanic god, Woden/Wotan/Odin (depending upon dialect/language spelling). Old English initially had "Thunresdaeg," but under the influence of Old Norse,* which had "Thorsdagr, it became "Thurresdaeg" in English, and eventually to the modern spelling. It seems the "n" sound of "thunraz/thondara" died out in Old Norse. Besides English "Thursday," other forms in the Germanic languages are: Swedish, Danish and Norwegian "torsdag," both Dutch "donderdag" and German "Donnerstag" actually still mean "thunder's day."

* Old Norse was another Germanic language, and the forerunner of modern Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic, all languages of the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. English is part of West Germanic.

A Song For Wednesday?

Let's see....is there a song for Wednesday? Hmm..."Wednesday, Wednesday?" Ah, nope; that's "Monday, Monday." How about "Wednesday Afternoon?" Nope, that's "Tuesday Afternoon." I can't come up with a song, off hand, but here's the history of our word "Wednesday:"

Wednesday literally means "Woden's day," and it was "Wodnesdaeg" in Old English. Woden was the main Germanic god of long ago, also known by variations in the other Germanic languages, such as "Odin/Odinn," in North Germanic, which has given Swedish, Norwegian and Danish "Onsdag," as a bit of a contracted form for Wednesday. Dutch has "Woensdag." German has "Wotan," but does not use the name for Wednesday, but rather uses "Mittwoch," which means "mid week," obviously close to the English words. The English form "Woden" seems to go back to Old Germanic "woth," which had the notion of "anger, mental excitement" and even "madness." This gave Old English "wod," later spelled "WOOD," but NOT related to the kind from trees. It is now archaic in English, but means "mad, extreme anger." In German it is "Wut," which has the same basic meaning, "rage, fury, extreme anger." So, I guess "Woden" was easily ticked off, something that seems to be associated with deities in the minds of many humans.

That Hopeless Feeling

So here we are, America in 2010, oil drifting in large amounts ever closer toward our beautiful, wildlife laden coast along the Gulf of Mexico. Americans wake up and go to bed to pictures of oil drenched animals and a live camera showing oil spewing forth from an underwater oil well. We see fishing boats tied up at docks, owners and employees waiting...waiting...waiting. What will happen?

For the past few decades we've heard how "government needs to get out of the way" for private business, and now we find that private business can't solve problems of their own making. The financial crisis should have been a wake-up call to all Americans that private business cannot regulate itself. Old Randy doesn't have special powers that can see the future, but Old Randy kept telling readers just about every week for several years what we were heading for, and I certainly wish that I'd been wrong. It didn't take Jean Dixon..ah, wait a minute, she's dead; well whoever the latest seer is, to tell me something had to give.

When what we call the "liberal" philosophy became the dominant political philosophy during the Great Depression, it remained strong for decades, until finally, after some spits and sputters, its agenda was exhausted. We voted in what we call the "conservative" philosophy to replace the worn out ideas of the past. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, except that gradually we had our collective soul taken over by greed. All of us can take blame. We wanted everything, and we didn't want to pay for much of it. The government has run huge deficits for most of the last thirty plus years, except for the last few years of the Clinton Administration and the first year of the Bush (George W.) Administration. Credit card debt and other forms of private debt trailed right along with the government trend. It seemed there was nothing we couldn't buy on credit, whether public or private. The government surpluses went the way of a picnic table full of hot dogs set in front of a bunch of burly guys in leather jackets who just pulled up on Harley-Davidsons....they disappeared, and quickly!

There are several reasons the government surpluses evaporated, including the spending in response to the 9/11 attacks, and the economic downturn precipitated by those attacks, but we also gave tax cuts to most Americans, although nearly 40% of those cuts went to the top 1% of the income ladder. As I've written here before, those multi-millionaires and billionaires have a tough time of it! We got into two wars, almost seemingly on a permanent basis, and we didn't pay for either of them, except in the worst way, through the blood and hardships of our soldiers sent to fight those wars. We gave senior citizens a prescription drug plan, and out came the national credit card again. Hmm, I thought these folks said they were "conservatives." Instead we got politicians who fell all over themselves promising us they wouldn't raise taxes, and some who actually said we should cut taxes even more. Then, as the skies darkened overhead, we did indeed cut taxes again in an effort to avert what was becoming an increasingly evident economic downturn, and a potential unraveling of our whole system. It didn't work, as the wealthy investors simply jumped the price of oil and gas, transferring the tax cut money into their bank accounts as fast as you could watch the dollar amounts tabulate on the gas pumps. Government deficits soared to record levels.

I won't go into the actual financial crisis itself, but you all know the basics: bankers and investment pros came up with lots of complicated special financial "products," often tied with mortgages, to make money. Democrat Bill Clinton's administration went along with the Republican-led congress dismantling laws that had been in place for decades to protect the banking industry; the legitimate banking industry that is. You know, where you deposit your paycheck, go for a car loan, and the like. Not the merged entities called "banks," that took money they didn't have and used it in casino-like fashion to line their accounts. If you don't get the picture, they gambled with money they DIDN'T have. The Bush Administration, ever hateful of ANY regulation, turned them loose, and off they went. Of course, when the roulette wheel came up bust, the entire system, and therefore the COUNTRY and the WORLD, could have gone into the tank. Out came the national credit card. Hundreds of billions were used to prop up ailing financial entities, and TRILLIONS (that's with a "T," folks) more were put forth to guarantee their solvency. These bailouts all started under those stalwart anti-government intervention, anti-government regulation, just plain anti-government folks in the Bush Administration, and was continued by the Obama Administration. The country seems to have averted a new "Great Depression," but we're now drowning in debt, and there's no end in sight. And here you thought we were just hopeless about drowning in oil.

WORD HISTORY:
Carve-This word goes back to Indo European "gerebh/gerbh," which meant "to scratch," which back a few thousand years ago had the further notion of "writing;" that is, "to scratch on stone or clay tablets with a sharp instrument." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "kerfanan," which then was passed down to West Germanic (English, German, Dutch, Frisian are all West Germanic languages) as "kerfan," which meant "to cut, notch." This gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "ceorfan," with the same meaning. Eventually the actual word "cut" overtook "carve" in the meaning "to cut," but "carve" was further extended to art and decorative work (sculptures and wood, stone, or plaster trimmings, for example), and finally to meat ("carve the roast"). Of our close relatives, German has "kerben," which means "to cut notches, to carve patterns (German also has a noun, "Kerbe," meaning "notch"), Dutch has "kerven" (verb) and "kerf" (noun).

Privacy Is Out The Window

No question about it, many people wonder if their personal privacy is a thing of the past. Just about anywhere you go, someone has a camera, video, or microphone, taking pictures, recording your every move, or recording much of what you say. Interestingly, politicians often seem to be behind the curve on these issues, and they are frequently caught doing or saying things that are later used against them in political ads, or perhaps even to prove things they initially denied. Terrorism, or the threat thereof, motivated governments at national, state and local levels to position cameras around large public gathering places and important bridges, buildings, monuments and the like. With so much hatred in many places around the world, including right here in America, the likelihood of any of these "observation points" going away any time soon, is highly doubtful. And all of the private devices, including camera phones, are not going to go away anytime soon, if ever. So I'd say, "Get used to it."

What many people don't think about is how much of our personal info is available to others, and I mean to members of the public, not necessarily to your local mayor's office. Many folks probably don't realize that, in many states and localities, lots of records about you are a matter of "public record;" that is, anyone can have access to the info. Birth records, death records, and marriage records commonly, but not in all cases, fall into this category. Other records have a "bit" more privacy, but it doesn't take much to get into them. Here I'm talking about such things as your traffic violations, your credit records,* and your payment, or non payment, of certain taxes (often property). In years past, these records were available, too, but few people even knew about it, or if they did, they were usually not interested enough to get off their...ah...duffs, to go to whatever office had the info and look it up. Now, much of that same info is available online; no getting off your duff, no driving to a particular location, no standing in line, and no flipping through file folders. Click, click, click...and there it is!**

Now that the Internet has been in existence for awhile, companies are always collecting info about what websites you visit, and of course, if you buy things online, make payments, or do online banking, you "register" to have access to those accounts, and that means personal info is stored by these outlets, making them vulnerable to "hackers" or just momentary lapses in website security, or flaws in software.

Then there's the personal aspect to our info, and we can't ever get away from it (I guess?). Companies and government officials are always saying, "We don't sell your information or provide it to others." I'm sure many of these "disclaimers" are sincere, but if I work for your debit card bank, your mortgage company, or your small town mayor's office, once I see or have access to your info, and I mean legit access, I know things about you that cannot be "wished away." Once you give info to any company or government entity, it's out there, that's it! (A Word History is after the notes)

* Credit information companies use "scores" to put a number on your credit worthiness, and these credit scores are easily available to all kinds of individuals, employers, or credit grantors. Your more detailed info is, in theory, a bit more protected, but any business, including landlords, can "subscribe" (pay a fee) to a credit reporting company not only to see if you paid American Express for your last trip to the ski slopes or to the beaches of southern Florida, but whether you still owe on a student loan, a car, or a vacation home, and how much it is exactly that you owe on any of them.

** Having done a lot of genealogy over the years, I learned from genealogy researchers that in times past, if a woman became "with child" before marriage, it was not unheard of for the couple, and sometimes not even the actual "father" (no easy tests back then), to head off to some official, like a justice of the peace, in an area not necessarily all that far away, and get married. They had a certificate (usually) to show they had been wed, and in those times, your neighbor had to be pretty damned nosey to travel maybe twenty or thirty miles by horse or buggy to snoop on the couple's record and match up a child's birth with the marriage date; although I'm sure the "hell fire and damnation" folks probably did just that.

WORD HISTORY:
Camera-One source says this word goes back to Indo European "kam," but it was only one source. Greek, an ancient Indo European language related to English further down the family tree, had "kamara," which meant "something with an arched cover or vaulted room." Latin (also Indo European) borrowed the word, with the same basic meaning. English then took the word from Latin in the early part of the 1700s. Around that same time, the word was also being used for "a small black box with a lens that transferred images to an inside part of the device," as a short form of "camera obscura," or "dark chamber." By the mid 1800s, it became the word for a "device that takes pictures." As you may have noticed, it is closely related to CHAMBER, which is simply the French form of Latin "camera," and was borrowed into English in the 1200s. It therefore has the same history as "camera." French is a Latin-based language, albeit with a number of Germanic borrowings, when Germanic "Frankish" literally was absorbed by the Latin dialects spoken in much of what is now modern France.

The German Question, Part Fifteen

One of the most important families in German history is that of the Habsburgs. The family, or at least the part of the family that came to be such durable rulers, arose in the southwestern German lands, specifically a region known as Swabia. There they built a castle called "Habsburg" (Burg in German means "castle," and more specifically "fortified castle," as opposed to a palace-type castle, which in German is a "Schloss"). While there is some disagreement over how the name came into existence, the traditional view of historians and linguists has been that the "Habs" part came from a contraction of, or a dialect pronunciation of, the German word for "hawk," which is "Habicht," with the "s" showing possession; and thus we have "Hawk's Castle." The castle was built circa 1025 A.D., and "supposedly" had a hawk frequently perched atop its walls, thus spawning the name. From what is known, the family didn't begin to associate the name of their castle with their actual family until the early 1100s, but it is quite understandable that such would happen, as in those times, when not everyone had a family name, it was not uncustomary for people to take on the name of the place they were connected with in the public mind. So we have the "von Habsburg" family, with "von" meaning "of/from" in German, just as in England there is the "Duke of Edinburgh," "Robin of Locksley/Sherwood," etc. "Von" came to denote "noble" status in German when used as part of a family name.

By the 1400s, the area of the castle was taken over by the Swiss Confederation, and it remains a part of Switzerland to this day (the castle still stands in the village of "Habsburg," which only has a few hundred residents). Remember, in those times, the area of present-day Switzerland was part of the old German ("Holy Roman") Empire. Habsburg Castle lies close to the present-day border with Germany, and to its former owner, and to the area of Swabia (Schwaben in German), home of "Mercedes" vehicles. The Habsburgs eventually ruled from Vienna ("Wien" in German), and indeed, Vienna was essentially the capital of the German Empire for many, many years.

Over time, the Habsburgs expanded the family holdings from that small area to much of that part of the southwestern German lands (including Alsace and the area around present-day Freiburg), and then they proceeded to acquire lands further eastward to the border of the Empire, including much of present-day Austria. The history of all of these acquisitions is complicated, but the lands were not always "seized" by force,* but often were acquired through negotiations or through marriages, sometimes "strategic marriages."**

With the prestige of having so many lands, the Habsburgs became THE important German noble family of those times, with titles like "duke" and "archduke," and the family leaders were often elected as German emperors (and kings of Germany), the first being Rudolf von Habsburg (usually with the Roman numeral "I" included in his name, as Rudolf I von Habsburg) in 1273.*** In fact, over a period of nearly 600 years, a Habsburg occupied the imperial throne much of the time, and in the last 368 years of the empire, a Habsburg was German emperor for all but 3 to 4 years.****

So, this is one of the powerful German families that ruled German lands, and the Habsburgs were based in the southern area of German territory. A bit later, another family, based in the north, rose to prominence and challenged the Habsburgs for the right to rule Germany. (A "Word History" follows the notes)

* With the loose organization of the German Empire, the German states frequently fought with each other, often resulting in transfers of territory.

** "Strategic marriages" were those where Habsburgs deliberately married into families that owned lands they wanted (what's all this "love" stuff, anyway?); thus bringing some of those lands into the Habsburg domain upon marriage, or eventually all of the lands due to heredity. I should note, this was NOT a practice exclusive to the Habsburgs, but they could have taught classes in it, as they were masters at it.

*** Technically, Rudolf I was not the German emperor, but rather carried the title "King Of Germany" due to much political turmoil in Germany with the decline of the Hohenstaufen family dynasty and because of battles with the Papacy. In order to get the "blessing" of the Pope as German king, Rudolf had to renounce certain possessions of the empire in Italy. He is counted as a German emperor, as he was indeed elected by the German electors in Frankfurt in 1273.

**** Later, Maria Theresa of the Habsburg family married Franz Stephan, the Duke of Lorraine (German: Lothringen), a territory that is about to become very important in the, "who is a German," question. So there will be much more on Lorraine. Maria Theresa's marriage to Franz Stephan altered the name of the dynasty to, "Habsburg-Lorraine," but the long connection of the Habsburgs to the German imperial throne still remained. 

WORD HISTORY:
Kaiser-This word goes back to Julius "Caesar," who became Roman Emperor. His personality was so strong, his name became associated with his position as emperor, which was "Imperator" in Latin. The Germanic peoples picked up the word "Caesar" in their own various forms, as did the Slavic peoples (thus we have "Tsar" or "Czar," which is simply "Caesar" in Slavic form). Old English had "casere," but from what I can find, the word seems to have died out (maybe it was stabbed to death, like its namesake, ah, for those unaware, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome in 44 B.C. Okay, don't laugh too much!) During the mid 1800s, English borrowed "Kaiser" from German, as it was the German word for "emperor." This went back to Old High German "keisar," which had been borrowed from Latin, noted above. The modern German spelling of "Kaiser," comes from south German dialect ("Bavarian," or as some now call it, "Austro-Bavarian"), which tends to use "ai" in place of "ei" in some spelling, but with the same pronunciation. When many Americans hear the word, they most likely think of "Kaiser Wilhelm," who was German emperor during World War I (he was actually "Kaiser Wilhelm II), but "Kaiser" was the title of other previous German/Austrian emperors.