Month names collection / metastudy

[Koen G]

Added. Aberel is a new one. It's the same pattern I've been seeing, where half decent August and April are found together but much of the rest is the German system. And March usually "mertz".

By the way, who know that "leb" is a lion?

   

[R. Sale]

An interesting find. It's dated c. 1450-1465, so just a little bit late - for some.

You've called this new Latin, but where does it come from? Back in earlier investigations, I looked at a lot of liturgical calendars, some of them Latin, and "aberel, aberil" didn't show up in the 'old' Latin. How did it get to the 'new' Latin??

[Juan_Sali]

An interesting find. It's dated c. 1450-1465, so just a little bit late - for some.

You've called this new Latin, but where does it come from? Back in earlier investigations, I looked at a lot of liturgical calendars, some of them Latin, and "aberel, aberil" didn't show up in the 'old' Latin. How did it get to the 'new' Latin??

Perhaps I didnt express myself well. Old names (in german) along with new names (taken from latin).

[Zauriek]

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 691

Amazing, Good work man.

@Koen G Is this useful?
*For the spreadsheet
         
     

*For the "insertion of vowel" [Is that odd?] & ["Mars" mentioned?]
       

[eggyk]

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Here are old german month names mixed with new latin ones:
gener, hornung (february), merz, aberel, maig, bra (june), howet (july), ogst ...

Thanks for the link!

Upside down on 81r you have this for august:

   

"Augstmond".

[Koen G]

"Augstmond".

That would certainly count for "augst", but it may be a different scribe: the corresponding 4th month is a rather standard "aprill".

[eggyk]

That would certainly count for "augst", but it may be a different scribe: the corresponding 4th month is a rather standard "aprill".

Looking online, I found a mention or two or "augstmond" being used in 15th century german. It seems that it was a transitionary period though, where latin months were becoming more and more common but were yet to take over completely. Augst is also mentioned as a dialectal version of august. 

This book mentions it on p235, right side: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Have we searched for many "augstmond" examples? Would be logical for someone to remove "mond" in a personal annotation.

[Koen G]

I would consider "augstmond" completely equivalent to "augst". 

What we're seeing is an interplay between two systems. On the one hand, you have the Latin month names, which were widely used in written sources. These have the advantage of being standardized, but they also feel like untransparent, foreign words to laypeople. In Germanic dialects, a range of month names was still in use, derived from the earlier lunar calendar.

The sources we are encountering reintroduce some of these dialectical names into writing, but often mix them with Latin names. The ones we have in the Drive doc show a similar pattern:

• March, April, May have a version of the Latin name. March is always "mertz", but April often has "b" or even a vowel insertion.
  
• June is always a version of "Brachmonat", plow month.
  
• July is a version of "Hewmonat", haying month.
  
• August may be "augst". This is a tricky one: it derives from the Latin "Augustus", but derivates like "oogst" in Ducth became synonymous with "harvest". In other words, it's possible that "augst" with omission of the last vowel was seen as one of these agricultural terms, even if it came from Latin.
  
• September, October, November and December shift around a bit, but they involve the words "Herbst" (autumn or harvest) and Winter. In the "cleanest" form, these months are First Autumn, Second Autumn, First Winter and Second Winter.
  

It's abundantly clear that the VM uses the Latin month names. But "aberil" and "augst" may be subtle indications of familiarity with the dialectical forms.

[R. Sale]

The indications are more than subtle. The evidence is pretty clear, but what to make of it?

Latin uses the word 'Aprilis'. How do we get to 'aberil'? Anyone got a Levenshtein measurement?

Language is based on sound. The French 'Avril' isn't far from 'averil'. Then, it's not that big a jump to 'aberil' or 'aberel'. In which case, the "dialect" might be showing "French" influences, more so than Latin, but from *Burgundian* sources.

Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy died in 1467. The text dated c. 1450-1465 would be at the height of the Burgundian State.

The problem with it being a dialect is, whose dialect was it? Is it the "Writer's" choice?

Several listings for "Auril" are on the scoreboard. Perhaps it can be clarified. Are these really using the letter 'u' as 'u', or is it the old 'u' as 'v' that didn't get changed?

[DG97EEB]

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Bleeping Gemini making stuff up again...grrr..post deleted