ModDu. baas, Langobard. barbas and Their Etymologies
Peter Alexander Kerkhof
Abstract
In this article it is argued that Modern Dutch baas ‘supervisor’ is a loanword from Romance *βasso- ‘servant’. This Romance word of Celtic origin (cf. OW gwas ‘servant’) is reflected in Medieval Latin vassus, bassus and developed the meaning ‘supervisor, leader’ in the course of the Early Middle Ages. This means that the Middle Dutch and Early Modern Dutch meaning of the word baas, i.e. ‘pater familias, head of the house- hold’, is secondary. Therefore Modern Dutch baas cannot be connected to Old High German basa ‘paternal aunt’ or Langobardic barbas ‘paternal uncle’. The origin of Langobardic barbas remains obscure and can both be explained in Romance terms or as a loanword from Alanic.
1 Modern Dutch and Middle Dutch
The ModDu. word baas “supervisor, superior, boss” has no accepted etymology. 1 In the Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (Philippa a.o. 2003: 197) the word is considered as a possible substratum word from a non-Indo- European language. Nevertheless, the substratum theory that is often invoked in this work as a last resort has recently been critiziced by Kroonen in his new Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic (2013).2 In the case of the word ModDu. baas I believe we are dealing with a loanword, but not from a non-IE substratum.
1 Special thanks to Michiel de Vaan who corrected an early version of this article. I would also like to thank Cor van Bree and Orsat Ligorio for commenting on specific problems in this article. 2 Guus Kroonen (2013) assumes that around 4–5 % of the Proto-Germanic lexicon is of demonstrably non-Indo-European origin. This opinion is shared by Roland Schuhmann who defended the same assertion at the Indogermanische Fachtagung 2012 in Copenhagen in his talk “Where is the substrate in the Germanic lexicon.” For the alternative view see Roberge (2010). See also Lubotsky (2001) for a review of the methodology involved with research into substratum loans.
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ModDu. baas goes back to MidDu. baes “pater familias, patron,” which is first encountered in the Van den vos Reinaerde poem (see M. de Vries 1856: 31).
Doe sprac Reynaert: nu gaen wi eten desen goeden vetten hasen. Die welp- kinde liepen ten base ende ghinghen eten al ghemene
Then spake Reynaert: Now we will eat this tasty fat hare. The whelps walked up to their father and all started to eat. (C 3134).3
We might also connect the earlier attestation of a Middle Dutch personal name Pieter f. Baes (ca. 1280 CE, see Gysseling CG I 1977: 462) in a thirteenth century diploma from Brugge, in which the element baes is a personal name indicating the father of Pieter, i.e. Pieter filius Baes. In Kiliaan’s C16 dictionary we find the word as baes “amicus & herus, pater familias” which means “friend, master and pater familias” (Kiliaen 1599: 24). Later on, the argument goes, the word would have come to denote “boss, superior” and was loaned into the neighbouring languages, giving ModE boss / bass “boss, leader of a political party”, ModFris. baas, ModDa., ModSw., ModNw. bas “supervisor”). It is unclear whether Late MLG bas, baas “supervisor, leader” is an independent cognate. As I will argue later on, I believe it does constitute a loan from Middle Dutch. When we proj- ect the MidDu. word baes back into Pre-Dutch we could reconstruct OLFrnk. *bas4 < PGmc. *basa- (st. masc. a-stem). In this article I would like to explore the different possibilities of etymologizing the ModDu. word baas, most nota- bly its assumed connection to Langob. barbas. I will conclude with my own etymology for the word baas.
2 Old High German and Langobardic
If a purported PGmc. *basa- would have had a meaning close to the MidDu. meaning “pater familias,” it might have been derived from an original kinship word. This would make a connection to OHG basa, wasa5 gl. amita, thia “pater- nal aunt” (see Schützeichel AAG I, 2004: 276) possible, as suggested by De Vries (1856: 31) and later Vercoullie (1925: 18–19). Bugge (1888: 175) however argued
3 Comburgh Manuscript, Württembergische Landesbibliothek Cod.Poet.Philol.22, C14. 4 Late Old Low Franconian *bās- in oblique cases because of vowel lengthening in open syl- lables. See also the section below “From Romance to Germanic.” 5 The word is found under two entries in Schützeichel 2004: in AAG I under basa (I: 276) and in AAG II under wasa (X: 409–410).
Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 05:07:17AM via free access Moddu. baas, langobard. barbas and their Etymologies 63 that OHG basa is a nursery word indirectly continuing a hypothesized PGMc. *baðurswesō < *faðurswesō, which was reduced as Lallwort to *basō˜. Although similar reductions are often found in nursery kinship terms, Lloyd and Springer (1988: 495) in the Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen are right in rejecting this solution and remark that the reduction itself seems highly erratic with no convincing motivation why PGmc. *faðurswesō would have to yield exactly OHG basa. Also the voicing of the initial fricative remains unexplained and has to be attributed to child speech. OHG basa, wasa has been connected by Bruckner (1895) to Langobard. barbas “patruus” (paternal uncle) from the seventh century Langobardic law text, the Edictus Rothari.6 Bruckner (1895: 40) explained the gloss as *bar-bas with the first element as bar “free man” (cf. MHG bar “free man” as in MHG barman, bardiu, barschalc, see Lexer 1872: 127–132) and the second element as *bas “male father’s sibling” which seems possible. However, since Langob. did possess the word baro, which according to its Romanization must have been an n-stem, one wonders why the com- pound did not yield Langob. **baro-bas (see also Van der Rhee 1970: 37). In Seeboldt-Kluge’s etymological dictionary (1989: 62–63) it is suggested that Langob. barbas and OHG basa are Verner variants of PGmc. *baswō˜ / *bazwō˜. This suggestion is also criticized by Lloyd and Springer (1988). We would have to assume Romance influence for the post-consonantal -w- to have become a voiced fricative, i.e. Langob. *-rw- > *-rβ- > Italo-Rom. *-rb- or assume assimilation of the *w to the preceding b (see Lloyd et Springer 1988: 495). Furthermore, since the gloss reads Langob. barbas, barba and barbanus it cannot have been a masc. n-stem, for Langobardic masculine n-stems regularly joined the Romance n-stem declination in *-one, i.e. Langob. *barwō˜ > *barβo > Italo-Rom. **barβone (cf. ModIt. barone < Langob. *baro < PGmc. *barō˜, see Van der Rhee 1970: 38–39). The form barbanus which is found in the manuscripts merits a closer look since it is the most occuring variant of the Langobardic gloss (Van der Rhee 1970: 36) and is continued in modern Italo-Romance dialects as barbanë and varëvanë in the regions of Taranto and Bari (Borg 1996: 134). The Romance suffix *-ane is a secondary creation mainly found in Gallo-Romance, Rhaeto- Romance and northern Italo-Romance and was formed analogically to the Romance noun class in nominative *-o, oblique *-one (Kramer 2011: 1968). Meyer-Lübke (1894: 24) assumed that the suffix was created in order to accom- modate the romanization of Germanic n-stems in nom. -a, obl. -an, which is corroborated by the fact that among the few Romance words that contain the suffix there are several Germanic loanwords (e.g. ModSp. guardiano < EGm.
6 For discussion, see Van der Rhee (1970: 36–38).
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*wardja “guard”) and even more Germanic personal names (cf. OFr. nom. berte < WGmc. *berhta, obl. bertain [proper noun], see Meyer-Lübke l.c.).7 Since Langobardic masculine n-stems show the West-Germanic vocalism of the nominative, e.g. Langob. baro, the formation *barbanus must have been made to a secondary *barba which cannot have been a Langobardic masculine n-stem. We should note that barba in the meaning of “uncle”, which is found in Piemont, Liguria, western Emilia, Lombardia, Malta and Venice, is the more common dialect form which eventually made its way into Modern Greek as μπάρμπας. The preponderance of the dialectal form barba would agree with the supposition that the original romanization was barba which only later was extended with a Romance *-ane-suffix (see Vàrvaro 1980: 273; Borg 1996: 134). The most important problem with the hypothesis that the glosses barba, bar- banus would be derived from a Germanic n-stem is that we must disregard the final -s of the attestation in the oldest manuscript (Cod. SanktG. 730, late C7), which is also my objection against the possibility that Langob. barbas “patruus” simply continues Lat. barba “beard” (contra Corellazzo and Zolli 2004: 128; Van der Rhee 1970: 37–38). A semantic shift from “beard” to “paternal uncle” or “grandfather” is not self-evident and the notion that the Langobards would have adopted a Romance word meaning “beard” so early on when they were so proud of their own beards is suspect to say the least (Pohl 2006: 146). Lloyd and Springer (1988: 495–496) suggest that it might be possible for a nursery element *ba- to have been extended with hypocoristic *-sa (cf. MHG [Rhine Franconian] Tantese, Mamese). This solution also neglects the fact that the Langobardic attestation barbas with final -s is the oldest. If one insists on connecting the Old High German and Langobardic words it seems simpler to accept Bruckner’s hypothesis and depart from a compound *bar-bas. This would enable us to extract Langob. bas < *basa- (st.m. a-stem) and OHG basa < *basō˜ (wk.f. n-stem), which would mean that Pre-Dutch *bas could connect to the Langob. word. The semantics between the Langobardic and Old High German kinship terms on the one hand and the assumed original meaning of the EModDu. word on the other are to my mind not close enough to justify such a connection. The early medieval words clearly denote the siblings of the father, not the father himself as in Kiliaen’s dictionary.
7 Interestingly enough, the kinship term amita “aunt” also developed an oblique amita- nis, which is attested in Late Latin sources. The form is however not continued in modern Romance dialects which may point to the fact that the use of this oblique form was not very common (Kramer 2011: 68). If the form existed in the Romance vernaculars of Early Medieval Italy it may have precipitated the creation of the form *barbano ← *barba.
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3 Other Etymologies for Langob. *barbas
A kinship term which looks very similar to a presumed Langobardic *barba- is Medieval Greek βαβας “father” (Modern Greek μπαμπάς, μπαμπάδες) which might lead one to connect the two. In order to account for the medial r in the Langobardic word we could assume that the Greek word first entered Romance where it underwent Romance insertion of anaptyctic r, cf. ModIt. varvassoro, barbassoro < Italo-Rom. *βaβassoro < βassoβassoro “vassal of vassals” (cf. Med.Lat. vassus vassorum, see REW 9167), after which it entered Langobardic. This would mean that the word only entered the Langobardic language upon the arrival of the Langobards in Italy where an Italo-Romance word *barbas “uncle” < Gk. βαβας existed. The semantic shift in Langobardic of the meaning “father” to “paternal uncle” is possible since the Germanic word for “paternal uncle” is closely associated with the word for “father” (cf. OHG fatar “father,” OHG fatureo “paternal uncle”). However, the Italian dialects do not give evidence for a kinship term *barbas, but point to Italo-Rom. *babbo (cf. ModIt. babbo, Logud. babbu, Rom. bap, Cors. bapu, REW 857). This Italo- Rom. *babbo “father” looks like an indigenous nursery word, but alternatively may have been adapted from the languages of the Alanic and Turkic merce- naries of the late Roman state, cf. Alanic *baba “father” (cf. Oss. baba “father”) and OTurk. *baba “grandfather” (cf. Turkmen. baba, Uzbek. baba). However, it is more likely that *babbo developed indepedently in Italo-Romance, since it is a kinship term found in many languages across the world and it contains a geminate which cannot be explained from either Greek or Alanic/Turkic. An immediate Greek origin for Langob. *barba- is unlikely since we need an inter- mediate stage with Romance r-anaptyxis in order to account for the form of the gloss. On the other hand, if the Langob. word continues a kinship term *baba > Rom. *barba of whatever origin, one wonders how it acquired the final -s. To my mind we cannot overlook this final -s, especially since it is attested in the oldest manuscript which gives us the most faithful rendition of the glosses (see Van der Rhee 1970: 11–12).
4 Pre-Langob. *-t > Langob. *-s
In the Langobardic lexical material found in the laws and glossaries one can identify two origins for Langob. final -s, namely a Langob. -s continuing a PGmc. *-s and a Langob. -s as the product of the Old High German soundshift, i.e. PGmc. *-t > Langob. -s. When for the sake of the argument we assume that the final -s in Langob. barbas is produced by an earlier final -t, two possibilities
Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 05:07:17AM via free access 66 kerkhof come to mind. One possibility presumes an Alanic origin, the other possibility a Romance origin. Concerning the first possibility we may argue that Langob. barbas originated in an Alanic compound of Alan. *baba “father” and Alan. *rβat 8 “brother” (Oss. ærvad “brother”). Compounded Alan. *baba + rβat “father brother” underwent syncope and caused Alan. *babarβat to be reduced to *barbat or *barβat). This kind of compounding with a noun in the first part functioning as an attribute to the second part is very common in Ossetic, the offshoot of the Alanic lan- guage (Abaev 1964: 104), and can therefore safely be projected back into Alanic. During the Migration Age the Alans moved alongside the Goths into the west- ern Roman Empire and may have brought the word *barbat/ *barβat first to the Langobards in Pannonia and then to the Italo-Romans in Italy. The Alanic word might have entered Italo-Romance in C5 or C6 CE (see Bachrach 1973: 33–41) and regularly lost the final *-t, i.e. Alan. *barbat > Italo-Rom. *barba (cf. Lat. voluerit > bolueri [inscr.lat.christ. 3855, C5] = Italo-Rom. *βolβeri). It is also possible that the Italo-Rom. word simply reflects the Langob. word with regular loss of the final consonant, which seems to be the easier solution. The Langob. word was adopted from Alan. as *barbat replacing their native word which probably ressembled OHG fatureo “paternal uncle” < PGmc. *fađurwjō˜. When the Old High German sound shift occured, earlier *barbat developed into Langob. *barbaʦ which was orthographically rendered as Langob. barbas (cf. Langob. sculdais “baillif” < *skuldahait9). This would also explain why in the oldest manuscript containing the Edictus Rothari we already find the spell- ings barbas and barba alongside each other. The spelling barbas would then reflect Langob. *barbaʦ and the spelling barba Italo-Rom. *barba, with regular loss of the final consonant. The second possibility also assumes a preform *barbat but this one would derive from Romance *barbato “bearded”. We may note that the word for “man” in Rumanian is bărbat with the semantic shift of “the bearded one” to “man” (see REW 946, Meyer-Lübke 1911: 65). This Rumanian shift stands alone amongst the Romance languages so we have no devices to determine how old it is. Presuming the shift happened before C6 CE we may argue that Balkan-
8 This would mean that the borrowing postdates the Proto-Ossetic metathesis of *-βr- > *-rβ-, which must have happened between the 1st c. attestation of the Alanic personal name βραδακος and the C11 attestation of the Alanic personal name αρβάτης (see Cheung 1999: 50; Alemany 2000: 241). 9 cf. OFris. skeltata < PGmc. *skaltahaitō˜ and OHG sculdheizeo < PGmc. *skuldahaitjō˜. For an overview of the effects of the Old High German soundshift in Langobardic, see Salmons (2012: 114).
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Romance *barbato “bearded man” was adopted as pre-Langob. *barbat in the very specific meaning of “paternal uncle.” Semantically this is not very con- vincing since the Langobards in all likelihood possessed an inherited word for “paternal uncle” and the semantic specialization seems highly unmotivated since all male Langobards seem to have sported a beard, not only the paternal uncles (Pohl 2006: 146)! However, if the origin of Langob. barbas is to be sought in Romance *barbato the rest of its evolution would run parallel to the above scenario in which it is derived from Alanic. The word would have undergone the Langobardic version of the Old High German sound shift and the final con- sonant would have been lost in Italo-Romance. Of the two scenario’s I would sooner confess to the former one than to the latter one.
5 Gallo-Romance and Frankish
Although it is possible that MidDu baes is related to Langob. barbas, another possibility might be proposed. I would like to propose that the meaning “super- visor” of MidDu. baes is old and connect it to Med.Lat. vassus, bassus10 “fief holder, vassal, high-ranking official” which probably continues a Gaulish word *wassos11 (cf. OIr. foss “servant” and OW gwas “id.”, Matasović 2009: 404). The medieval Latin word is a learned version of Rom. *βasso “half-free servant” which may be recognized in the spelling vasso [nom.] (ad ministe- rium) “half-free servant to the lord” of the C6 Salic Law (Pactus Legis Salica 35,6).12 We also encounter the word as vassus, bassus, vasus “half free servant of medium rank”13 in the Alamannic and Bavarian Laws (Leges Alamannorum 75, C7 CE, Lex Baiwariorum, C8). In those C7 and C8 law texts we may note that the Romance geminate has already undergone the West-Romance degemina- tion to single s, since most attestations give us basus, vasus instead of bassus, vassus.14 In Carolingian times the term came to denote high ranking officials,
10 This etymology was first suggested by Hugo Grotius in his historia gotthorum, vandalo- rum et langobardum (1655: 575) where he glosses bassus with custos populi, baes manet in belgici. 11 For the identification of the Celtic source, see Thurneysen (1884: 82) and Diez (1861: 436– 37). For an alternative but unconvicing etymology, see Nicholson’s (1929: 50–70) to con- nect it to OFrk. *warti (cf. OHG wart gl. custos “guard”). 12 Eckhardt 1962: 132. 13 According to the Leges Alamannorum a seniscalco “senior servant” may have had twelve vassos under his authority (MGH LL nat. germ. V 78,3, Lehmann ed. 1964: 138). 14 Assuming the degemination was connected by a chainshift to Gallo-Romance lenition we may date it around the 7th c (see Cravens 2000: 61–62).
Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 05:07:17AM via free access 68 kerkhof as is clear from the Capitulare Haristallense (779 CE),15 where bassus means “supervisor managing lower functionaries” or “vassal holding a fief.” Later Med. Lat. vassus, bassus developed a feudal meaning as “fief holder” and “feudal vassal”.16 In Carolingian times already it was extended with the suffix *-alo17 (Latinate -allus), i.e. Med.Lat. vasallus (cf. OFr. vasal). In this regard I want to point to the Middle High German word baseman, bassman “high ranking com- moner, commoner between nobility and peasantry” (see Schröder 1932: 1244, 1245) Also this word could be connected to Rom. *βasso “high ranking servant.” The Middle Dutch word baes would then represent an Early Medieval loan from the Romance dialect continuum.
6 From Romance to Germanic
How would the Romance word *βasso that lies behind the Medieval Latin spellings vassus / bassus connect exactly to the Middle Dutch word baes? Phonologically there are few problems. The geminate -ss- in Latin against the single -s- in Middle Dutch is easily explained by the degemination which operated in all the West-Romance dialects above the La Spezia Rimini line. This means that the Latin geminate –ss- regularly became single -s- in West- Romance, e.g. Lat. grossus, grossa “thick” > WRom. *groso, *grosa > ModFr. gros [gro], grosse [gros] “id.”. Note that the same degemination operated in ModFr. vassal [vasal] < WRom. *βasalo < MedLat. vassallus. The irregularity that does exist lies in the initial Middle Dutch b as reflex for Latin /w/ since normally Latin /w/ is reflected as /w/ in Germanic, e.g. Lat. vinum [winum] “wine” > MidDu. wijn [wi:n] “id.”. In the imperial period Latin /w/ (orthographically
15 See MHG LL Capit. I, Boretius ed. 1883: 48) 16 In the Old High German glosses Med.Lat. vassus is glossed as OHG knecht. Other transla- tions of knecht include vasallus, militaris, puer and apparitor, indicating that the word knecht underwent the same semantic shift from “servant” to high ranking feudal officer (see Schützeichel AAG V, 2004: 267–268). 17 It is very well conceivable that the l-suffixation in the Romance word was provoked by a Frankish variant, i.e. OFr. *wasal, since the l-suffix for denoting personal functions is neither common for Celtic nor Romance.
Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 05:07:17AM via free access Moddu. baas, langobard. barbas and their Etymologies 69 ated over word boundaries and can be observed synchronically in Sardinian Lugodoranese, Sisco Corsican and Insular Spanish (see Hall 1964; Cravens l.c., Oftedal 1984). In initial position Latin etymological /b/ therefore had two pho- netic allophones. The phonetic realization [b] is found in absolute initial posi- tion and after a word ending in a consonant (the so called strong positions). The phonetic realization [β] is found when the preceding word ended in a vowel (the so called weak position). The same holds true for the Latin etymological *w which in strong positions was realized as [v] and in weak positions as [β].18 This led to the partial merger of the two etymological sounds in initial position. Some Romance dialects analogically extended the lenited allophone [β] to all initial positions, such as Spanish, South Italian and Gascon. In most Romance dialects however the ety- mological contrast is retained by the analogical extension of the non-lenited allophone [v] in initial position. Below you will find this phenomenon illus- trated by the Spanish and French reflexes of Latin bovem “bovine” and vinum “wine”.
LENITION ACROSS WORD BOUNDARIES Position Vulgar West- Spanish French Latin Romance
STRONG #CV bove bɔβe buey [bwej] bœuf [bœf] vinu vino vino [bino] vin [vɛ̃]
WEAK V CV ūnu bove uno βɔβe uno buey19 [uno βwej] un bœuf [ũ bœf] ūnu vinu uno βino uno vino [uno βino] un vin [ũ vɛ̃]
This analogical extension of the non-lenited allophone in initial position is also found with the Latin voiceless stops whose reflexes in the Romance languages are generally voiceless, e.g. Lat. cōnflāre “to inflate” > MidFr. confler “to expand”. Since the majority of initial positions were strong, i.e. following a consonant or a pause, such a generalization of the non-lenited allophone is to be expected
18 Velius Longus already remarked in the 2nd c. CE that initial *w-
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(see Cravens 2000: 58–59). However, incidentally a form with the lenited anlaut survives as independent lexeme,20 e.g. ModFr. gonfler “to inflate.” In the dialects that keep the two etymological sounds apart we also find scattered survivals of words where the lenited allophone [β] was general- ized, e.g. OFr. berbiz “sheep” < Rom. *βɛrβiʦe (cf. Lat. ver-vēcem “id.”), ModFr. Besançon [place name] < Vesantione, Rum. băşică “bladder” < Rom. *βɛssika (cf. Lat. vessica “id.”), Tusc. boce “voice” < *βɔʦe (cf. Lat. vocem “id.”). Medieval Latin orthography also bears witness to the initial allophony in dialects that should have kept the phonemes apart in initial position. In Medieval Latin texts we find many instances where etymological Latin v- [w-] is written with b- [β-]. We find this phenomenon clearly in the Appendix Probi (C7 CE) which is often cited for its orthographic representation of West-Romance sound laws, e.g. 130 vapulo non baplo (cf. Lat. vāpulāre “to be hit, to perish,” see Tekavčič 1970: 250). This allophony also explains the vacillation between the Medieval Latin spellings vassus and bassus. It is plausible that the word for “supervisor” was often used in combina- tion with the vocative particle, i.e. WRom. *a βaso “o supervisor.” It is likewise plausible that speakers of West-Germanic who had the same allophony of [b] and [β] word medially would have adopted a phonetic [β] as [b] word initially where in their language only the obstruent was permitted. Assuming the word was loaned from Gallo-Romance we might also reckon with the Gallo-Romance weakening of final -o to schwa -ə which would have given a prefrom *βas(ə) in the Gallo-Romance donor language. This Gallo-Romance *βas was adopted as *bas in West-Germanic which developed into baes in Middle Dutch, the same way Gallo-Romance *vas “vase” (cf. OFr. va “id.”) from Lat. vasum “id.” devel- oped into Middle Dutch vaes. The lengthened vowel ā
7 Middle High German bās
However, we should not forget that in the Mittelniederdeutsches Handwörterbuch (Lasch et Borchling 1956: 150), a late Middle Low German bās (m.) is mentioned meaning “supervisor, master by dyke maintenance works, lord.” This is clearly the same word as the Middle Dutch word baes. Unfortunately, no place and
20 Scattered though these survivals of lenited anlaut may be, Figge (1966) dedicated an entire monograph to these cases.
Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 05:07:17AM via free access Moddu. baas, langobard. barbas and their Etymologies 71 date of attestation is mentioned, meaning the word might be attested in a text from either the 16th or 17th century. In the later Low German dialects the word has merged with an adjective that the Mittelniederdeutsches Handwörterbuch lists under the lemma basch “stark, kreftig.” The question is whether this adjec- tive was derived from the noun bās or the noun bās is a substantivation of an original adjective. Holthausen (1920: 479) assumes the latter and says bās can be derived from earlier *bates “mit vorteil, gewinn” from MHG bate f. “vor- teil, gewinn.” This solution is implausible considering the early Middle Dutch attestations of baes which never give bates. Therefore it is rejected by Van Haeringen (1936: 26–27). Another solution would be that we are dealing with a loan from the Middle High German comparative baʒʒ “better, more” (cf. Old Saxon bat, OFris. bet) which is also not plausible when we want to connect the Middle Dutch C13 attestation in Pieter f. Baes. The easiest solution for these problems would be to assume that Middle Low German bās derives from Middle Dutch baes because of its earlier attes- tation. The adjective basch would then have a different origin and might not be related to bās “supervisor” at all.21 The fact that the main meaning of the Low German word bās is “supervisor, boss” which is well represented in the Low German dialects, not only the ones connected by the river trade to the Middle Dutch speech area, strengthens the assumption that this was the main meaning of the word in Middle Dutch as well. The same conclusion is also reached by Van Wijk in his Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal (1912: 26–27). Occasionally meanings in the Low German dialects agreeing with Kiliaen’s translation pater familias are found, e.g. Rhine Franconian bās “boss, supervi- sor, man of esteemed age, father” and Westphalian bās “boss, supervisor, person in charge, pater familias” (see Müller 1928: 486; Teepe et Niebaum 1981: 506). In these words the meaning “man of esteemed age” clearly developed second- arily from the main meaning “supervisor, master”. The semantic shift in Middle Dutch would then have been the other way around, namely from “supervi- sor, authorative person” → “pater familias.” The meaning amicus “friend” that Kiliaen mentions would also connect well with a secondary semantic shift from an original meaning “supervisor.” A shift the other way around, from “pater familias” to “friend,” would be harder to conceive.
21 It might derive from an adjectivation of bat “better,” i.e. *batsk > basch. Alternatively, the word may be cognate with Old Frisian base.basa “indecent” as in basa feng. Schaffner’s (1997) attempt to connect this word to OE bær, OHG bar are unconvincing, for the word is clearly an adjective to following feng. In function it completely agrees with Middle Low German bās as adjective.
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8 Conclusion
To sum up: connecting the ModDu. word baas to OHG basa and Langob. bar- bas relies on the assumption that the kinship meaning “pater familias” is origi- nal and the meaning “supervisor” is secondary. In this article I have rejected that assumption. The Langob. word may be of Alanic origin and continue Alan. *babarβat “father’s brother” or it may be of Romance origin and continue either an indepedently arisen Proto-Romance kinship word *baba/babba with anaptyctic -r- before the labial or a Balkan-Rom. *barbat < *barbato with the semantic specialization of “man.” The latter solution is not very plausible con- sidering the limited distribution of this semantic specialization. A connection to a postulated Alanic *babarβat “father’s brother” seems to be the most attrac- tive solution. I have argued that the ModDu. word baas needs to be connected to Romance *βasso > West-Romance *βaso as reflected in MedLat. bassus, vassus, basus, vasus “servant, servant managing lower servants” and later “high ranking offi- cial, vassal, fief holder”. Originally the Romance word derived from a Gaulish word for “servant,” namely *wassos < PCelt. *wastos. This meaning it still had in the 6th century when we encounter the word in the Lex Salica. Later on the word came to denote a ministerial supervisor leading multipe lower servants. The word entered pre-Dutch via Gallo-Romance *βas(ə) with the meaning “supervisor, master” a meaning the ModDu. word baas still possesses today.
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