JKP, I was reminded of those other marginalia as well, because they contain a word I preferably read as mulier. It would connect well to the widows part because it's about women as well.
Tzeghen I thought might be t zeghen, since zeughen are female pigs. But I didn't look up the word so you're probably right.
(09-07-2017, 11:42 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This really looks close to Middle Dutch to me.
Well, it is Niederdeutsch, which is more or less Dutch
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
Ah, surely "del" = part. "Deel" means "part" both in Nederlands and Wäästfaalisch.
And I agree with JKP that the circle over the u is simply a diacritic. For example, in Middle High German dictionaries it is very frequent.
Now, we do not necessarily have to join "mus" and "del" together (for the VMS folio), they can be two different words. Because "del" as "part" nicely fits the picture, which shows several "parts" (of something).
Just to state my personal opinion (which I think is a fact) that you have to read mel and not del on f. 66v
I split this thread since it's an interesting tangent.
So a recap. "Der mus dele" is a legal term mostly known from the Sachsenspiegel, an influential work of law written in a northwest German dialect, translated by the author from his own Latin original.
Etymologically, the word means "one's part of the food". In the specific legal context it means the inheritance of the wife after her husband dies.
Linguistically, "moes" was still known as "food" to 16th century lexicographer Kiliaan, though he noted it as archaic. Of course, the specific legal meaning in the compound moesdeel has survived longer, losing the transparency of the first part as the meaning of "moes" was forgotten. I'm less informed on the situation in German.
The "del" in the VM would indeed suggest a Low German dialect, since in High German we'd expect something like Teil.
Of course if the legal term comes from a well known source in Low German, the dialectical specifics in the VM may be the result of adoption rather than the scribe's own language/dialect.
Edit: as a complete aside, apparently Chaucer used "del" for "part" as well.
(10-07-2017, 09:39 AM)Helmut Winkler Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Just to state my personal opinion (which I think is a fact) that you have to read mel and not del on f. 66v
Well it looks like "mel" corrected to something like "del" for the reason unknown. If I remember correctly, this was discussed in the "main" You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. thread.
Nice to learn that musdel is not just "share", but actually share of
food. In Middle High German, "mûs" or "muos" stands for "
essen, Malzeit" (see Lexer). I knew that before, but it did not occur to me that food could have been kinda synonym of inheritance, linguistically.
(10-07-2017, 09:46 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
Edit: as a complete aside, apparently Chaucer used "del" for "part" as well.
Not surprising. Del is Norse (as mentioned above as
part/portion/share of). There are many Norse words in Old & Middle English and in low German. It's spelled the same in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian as "del".
In Dutch it became "deel" and in English, it became "dele" and then also became a verb as "to deal" (to portion out, to deal out as one would deal out sectors of land or playing cards).
(10-07-2017, 09:46 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
Linguistically, "moes" was still known as "food" to 16th century lexicographer Kiliaan, though he noted it as archaic. Of course, the specific legal meaning in the compound moesdeel has survived longer, losing the transparency of the first part as the meaning of "moes" was forgotten. I'm less informed on the situation in German.
...
I don't know how relevant this is, but in Scandinavian (also French?), moesdeel refers more specifically to a portion/serving of porridge/puré.
In modern English, porridge refers more specifically to a grainy breakfast (like oatmeal puré), but in Scandinavia, it's a more general term that includes not only the grain porridges, but also fruit porridge (rød grød/röd gröt). I don't know for certain, but I don't think they would interpret moesdeel more broadly to mean "food". Oat-based porridge was especially popular in Saxon times.
If the words are split apart "moes deel", then one gets "must share" or something that is "required to share" (share/portion requirement) which would fit a legal context.
In modern Dutch too, moes means puré, though mostly in standard compounds and expressions. For example, a traditional dish is blood sausage with appelmoes.
The etymological dictionaries and other sources I consulted are clear, though, that the mus in musdele originally just meant food. The widow or divorcee was literally entitled to a set part of the food supplies, to allow her to survive in comfort for a while.
The same Germanic root gave English 'meat', which first meant food in general.
These terms have a tendency to specialize, depending on what this food often is. Mashed things were often eaten, so mus and moes specialized to mean only that.
The flesh of animals is also often eaten, so in English meat came to bear that specific meaning.
I was trying to find out how the "morning gift" custom was applied in different areas, as I am only familiar with the northern custom (Scandinavian/Lombard), and discovered quite a bit of information on it in You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view., beginning on page 142.
The Greeks apparently had something similar which was, in essence, payment for the taking of the wife's virginity.
It mentions another law book, the
Statute Book of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria (1300s) which permits the inclusion of up to twenty slaves to the tithe of the husband's property given to the bride. I didn't look very thoroughly but I didn't see a copy of this online.