25. A note on the etymology of Germanic +skellingaz '': With an appendix on Latin siliqua 'a small '*

twahundred schillinges of seoluer =twa hundred sicles of scoluer (Ancrene Riwle, ca. 1230)1

Abstract

The Germanic word +skillingaz or +skellingaz 'shilling' is well represented in all branches of Germanic but has no certain etymology. More precisely, there exist at least four etymologies. These cannot all be correct but, as is likely in such a situa­ tion, may all be wrong. A new etymology is proposed which assumes the word to be a Semitic loan-word, viz. an adaptation of the Phoenician form of the shekel word, sql +[s;)'Is:ell, by means of the affixation of the same suffix -ing- that also occurs in the names of other : +[sa'ls:eIJ => +[,skel] (as perceived on the Germanic side) ~ +['skellil)gaz] (by addition of -ing- and preservation of the heavi­ ness of the root syllable, and addition of -az, preserving the masculine gender of the Semitic model) > +['skillil)gaz] (by assimilatory raising of +e to +i). The quality of the proposed etymology is underlined by the fact that the two meanings given in the literature for the Semitic and the Germanic word are the same for both: (1) 'a segment of fixed weight (of precious metal)" and (2) 'a certain coin'. - In the Ap­ pendix it is proposed that the Latin word siliqua in its monetary sense (cf. also borrowed OHG silihha 'coin, a coin') likewise derives from the shekel word, as does the Greek s{glos, but with metathesis and with folk-etymological influence of the native si/iqua 'pod of leguminous plant; St. John's bread'.

The Germanic word +skillingaz or +skellingaz 'shilling' is well repre­ sented in all branches of Germanic (cf. OED: s.v. shilling): OE scWing, OFris. skilling, skilleng, schilling, MOu. schellingh (Ou. schelling), OS settling (MLG schiflink, schildink, mod.LG schillink, schilling), OHG scilling, skillink, schilling (MHG, G schilling), ON skilling-r (Icel. also 486 Germanic +skellingaz 'shitling' ski/dingr, Swed., Dan. skilling), Goth. +skilliggs (only acc. plur. skillig­ gans). As for its etymology, the OED writes:

The Teut[onieJ word is referred by some etymologists to the root *skell- to re­ sound, ring (see lihill a. and v. I ). Others assign it to the root *skel- to divide (whence skill V., shale n., shell n., etc.); some have conjectured that the woo originally denoted one of the segments of fixed weight into which an armlet of gold or was divided, so that they might be detached for use as money. In the bilingual documents of the 6th century, Goth. skilliggs corresponds to the L. solidus; in medireval Germany the Teut. and the Latin word were commonly used to render each other, but in England the correspondence appears to have been only occasionally recognized until Norman times. The value of the 'shil­ ling' in continental Teut. countries has varied greatly; its relation to the penny and the pound has also varied, though a widely accepted scale was I pound or libra 20 shillinls or solidi = 240 pennies or denarii. See schelling, schillingl, skilling .

Kluge/Seebold (2002: s.v. Schilling Sm rSubstantiv, maskulinl 'Mtinze') have this to say about the etymology of the word:

Das Wort wird auf *skild-ling zurUckgeftihrt, doch ist dies schon lautlich niehl ohne Bedenken. Sachlich Uberzeugend, aber in der angenommenen Lautent­ wicklung abenteuerlich leitet BR0NDAL [1917] das Wort aus einem Diminuti­ vum von l[ateinischJ siliqua (kleines Mtinzgewicht, nur der Denar war etwas leichter) [her]."

Boutkan, in the electronic Old Frisian etymological database, declares the word to be of Proto-Indo-European origin, reconstructs "Proto­ Germanic *skel- + -inga-", and supports, among the etymologies re­ viewed, that which derives the word from the verbal root "Proto-Indo­ European *(s)k(w)elh-" (corresponding to the OED's root *skell- 'to resound, ring'), more precisely from the "adjective *skell-, cf. ON skjall, OE scyl", derived from it.3 Thus we are offered four different etymologies, which derive the word respectively (1) from the verbal root * skell- 'to resound, ring' or from an adjective derived from it, (2) from the verbal root *skel- 'to divide', (3) from the nominal stem * skeldu- 'shield' (which may in turn be derived from the verbal root * skel- 'to divide', cf. Kluge/Seebold 2002: s.v. Schild), and (4) from the Latin noun siliqua.4 These four etymologies cannot, of course, all be valid, but they can all be incorrect; and indeed I find none of them convincing. Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling' 487

The best etymology for a coin in the language of a people not yet very familiar with monetary matters - a condition which may safely be assumed for the early Germanic people - is a reconstruction as a loan­ word from the language of a culturally more advanced people in contact with the people under study. Within the theory of the origin of Ger­ manic that I have been developing (cf. Vennemann 2000f, 2004a) , for Proto-Germanic this contact language would be Phoenician, more pre­ cisely the Punic language of the Carthaginian empire. It so happens that the basic unit of monetary weight, and thus the basic coin, in the Phoenician world was the shekel, i.e. the seqel (Ac­ quaro 1988, Jacques Alexandropoulos in Lipinski [ed.] 1992: s.v. Nu­ mismatique); the pronunciation of the word in Punic was most probably [s~.'l}eJ]. The Phoenician vocalization of the noun sql is not attested. In the most closely related language, Hebrew, the vowels are variously written as sreqel (Feyerabend 1998: s.v.), sreqrel (Brown et al. 1979: s.v.), or seqel (Levin 1995: 145 n. 30, 286); plur. seqlillm. In Hebrew, the accent was apparently on the penult, thus 'sre.qrel (Levin: [S€qElJ).5 Phoenician, however, had a stricter word-final accent than Hebrew. This becomes evident when the accent causes a characteristic segmental change that gives it away. A well-known change of this kind is that of "long" a into 0 (li > 0). Krahmalkov (200 I: 28) writes, "In an open or closed stressed syllable, the sound change a > 0 was characteristic and distinctive of Tyro-Sidonian among the Canaanite languages." Actually, the change of a into 0 (li > 0) has to be restricted to singly closed sylla­ bles; "in doubly closed syllables, the vowel is always a" (ibid.). Krah­ malkov further writes (2001: 33), "Word-stress was, as in Hebrew, on Ithe] final syllable in most instances." There is evidence, however, that the Phoenician accent moved to the final syllable even in cases where in Hebrew it rested on the penult. At least this is what seems to follow from the following quotation (Lipinski 1997: § 25.6), where the point of reference is "the accentuation of the final syllable" which is "dominant in the Jewish traditional pronuncia­ tion of Hebrew": "Also Phoenician, [which] seems to have had a strong stress accent, usually accentuates the final syllable of a word, which was tone-lengthened with the consequent change li > 0 {e.g. yati5n < yattin < yatan, 'he gave')." What Lipinski means by "tone-length" seems to be what in modern general linguistics is named smooth syllable cut, the pronunciation with a "free" (or "tense") rather than "checked" (or "lax") vowel, where smooth cut combines with a phonetic lengthening of the vowel under accent.6 The evidence for this is three-fold: 488 Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling'

First, "tone-lengthening" occurs both in open and closed syllables; from the fact that it also occurs in closed syllables it follows that the change was not a lengthening in a quantitative sense, because for quan­ titating languages there is no such change as lengthening in closed sylla­ bles under accent. Second, the raising of a to 0 too suggests a syllable-cut language rather than a quantity language; long vowels in quantity languages do not rise but tense vowels in syllable-cut languages do, as shown by Eng­ lish: Old English a rose to 0, more precisely 10:1 > b:/, as the language gave up phonological length in favor of syllable cut (e.g. OE stan> ME stgn > ModE stone, OE ham> ME hQm > ModE home, OE ak > ME Qk > ModE oak); later all non-high tense vowels rose in the so-called Great Vowel Shift.? Third, the reduction of unstressed vowels, which Phoenician shares with Hebrew (Segert 1976: §§ 36.22-23), is not common in quantity languages but is a typical property of syllable-cut languages; Lipinski (1997: § 25.6) describes the correlation of word stress and vowel re­ duction in Phoenician as follows: "The place of the accent, and its strong stress character, may be judged from the apparent reduction of short unaccented vowels in the penult syllable (e.g. IESovS [Yedtid] < yaddd, 'beloved')."s Punic word-final accent, tensing of vowels in open and singly closed syllables, and pretonic vowel reduction thus constitute a sequence of changes ['SE.~El] > [SE.'kEl] > [s:;).'kelr and thus, with the Punic merger of lSI and lsi into lsi (Krahmalkov 2001: 25[), make a Punic pronuncia­ tion as given above, [s~.'kel], likely. I submit that this term, seqel [sa.'kel], was adapted into Germanic on the same pattern as West Germanic +paning 'penny' (cf. Vennemann 2006b), namely by adding the individualizing suffix -ing- (for which see Munske 1964: 127) to the borrowed base [s:;).'kel]. The latter would yield the Germanicized nominal base +skel-, which later, with vowel raising before the suffixal high vowel, became +skil-. The borrowing process would produce a kind of variation between +skelling and +skelding which resembles that of the later, only West Germanic +paning, +panning, +panding 'penny', except that the form +skiling is not attested. The reason for this may be that a perceived bi-moricness of the closed stressed syllable of Punic seqe/ [s:;).'~ell was replicated in Germanic by keeping the accented syllable closed in the derivate, +!.'skel. J, which could most easily be achieved by geminating the final root consonant: +I.'skel.lil).gaz.]. It is conceivable that the epenthetic -d­ served exactly the same purpose: Both +['skel.lil).gaz.] and +[.'skel.dil).gaz.] keep the stressed +[.'skel.] together in one syllable, Germanic +skcllingaz 'shilling' 489 while the syllabication +[.'ske.IiI).gaz.] would destroy it. The availability of two designations containing a prosodically identical or near-identical part, +[.'skel.] or +[.'sa.kel.l on one hand, +[.'skel.liI).gaz.] / +[.'skel.diI).gaz.1 on the other, may have been desirable to bilingual speakers of languages sensitive to syllable-structure based prosody.lO That the Semitic word meaning 'fixed weight' and 'coin' was liable to borrowing into Indo-European is shown by Greek a{yAos, a{KAos 'Gewicht und Miinze' (Frisk 1991: s.v., likewise Chantraine 1984: s.v.), from "something like the Hebrew ... siq(a)leY ... (construct plur.)" (Levin 1995: 145, n. 30, also 286).11 I mention in closing that PGmc. +skellingaz I +skeldingaz and Pun. seqel both appear to transport the same set of meanings. The Germanic word meant (1) a "segment of fixed weight (of precious metal)"12, and (2) a certain coin. The same two meanings are given for the Canaanite word seqel: E.g., the Hebrew meanings are given in Brown et at. 1979: s.v. as "arig. = weight; Jate Heb. ;::: coin", and Krahmalkov 2000: s.v. SQL II glosses the Punic word as 'fixed weight, sheqeJ'. That the weight meaning of the Canaanite word is basic to the noun follows from the fact that it is a nominalization of a triliteral verbal root s-k-l- which in Hebrew and Phoenician means 'to weigh (trans. and intrans.), to weigh out' .13

Appendix: Lat. si/iqua 'a small coin'

Returning to the above quotation from Kluge/Seebold 2002, where Bn;;ndal's etymology for the shilling word based on Lat. siliqua is cited and dismissed, I would like to point out that siliqua is itself problemati­ cal. Three meanings of the word are given by Ernout and Meillet (1985: s.v.): (1) , (2) , (3)

Afterwords

1. On shilling

Peter Schrijver, in an e-Ietter of 25 May 2005, analyses the above ety­ mological proposals rather critically. He writes:

Anscheinend bezeichnet *skilling- zunachst den ostromischen goldenen solidus, der bis ca. 800 in Gebrauch war. Gotisch skillingans begegnet erst in einem Dokument aus Italien aus dem 6. Jh. (005 in jener Zeit unter ostromischer Ge­ walt stand). Wenn dies stimmt, unterstiitzt es Ihre Erklarung nicht.

It may not contradict my explanation either. Since Gothic is attested early and in Italy, the fact that the shilling word is first attested in Gothic is not surprising, It does not imply that the word entered Germania in Italy or through Gothic and only in the sixth century.

1m Lichte von mlat. SCUdatU5 aureus und frz. Ecu < lat. scutum ist die Herlei­ tung aus skild-ling attraktiv, also ein "calque". Kluge-Seebolds Einwand "doch ist dies schon lautlich nicht ohne Bedenken" basiert wohl dar,mf, dass kein zweiter Fall von ldl> II gefunden werden kann; solange jedoch Gegenbeispiele ebenfalls fehlen, tiberzeugt der Einwand nicht. Ihr Vorschlag ersetzt also m.E. die alte Etymologie keinesfalls, sondern ist neben sie zu stellen, als bloBe Al­ ternative.

MLat. seudatus aureus appears to be a serious argument in favor of the skild-ling etymology, But it must be considered that seudatus does not mean 'shield' but 'carrying a shield'. And indeed, as already pointed out in Vennemann 2006b: 273f. in answer to Schrijver's caveat, the French eeu (literally: 'shield') does not take its name from any shield­ like shape of the coin but from the coining king's coat-of-arms shown on the coin:

Ecu d'or: Erste franzosische Goldmtinze, die von Konig Ludwig IX. (1226- 1270), Saint Louis (der HeiJige), urn 1270 im Wert von 10 Sols tournois oder 120 Deniers tournois eingeftihrt wurde .... Die V[order1s[eite] zeigt den charak­ teristischen Lilienschild, die R[tick]s[eite] das Blumenkreuz.16 Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling' 491

Perhaps then my etymology of shilling is not damaged by Schrijver's comparison.

2. On siliqua

Schrijver continues in his e-letter of 25 May 2005:

siliqua ist auf jeden Fall anders zu beurteilen. In der Bedeutung 'Htilsenfrucht, lohannisbrotfrucht und -baum (Ceratonia siliqua)' ist das Wort im vorchristli­ chen Latein belegt. Die Bedeutung 'kleines InhaltsmaB' erscheint erst ab 400 n. Chr., 'MUnze' erst im Codex Justinianeus (530). Darum muss die Etymologie wohl von der Pflanzenbezeichnung ausgehen (so Walde-Hofmann). Eine Tren­ nung der zwei Bedeutungen in zwei Etyma ist nicht plausibel. Der Schltissel zum Verstiindnis ist wohl in der Bedeutung 'lohannisbrotfrucht' zu suchen. Bekanntlich enthalten die langen Htilsenfruchte dieses Baums groBe Bohnen, die seit dem Altertum zur Bestimmung von Inhalts- und GewichtsmaBen verwendet (die Bohnen sind gleieher GroBe) und aueh fUr Wertbestimmungen benutzt wurden. Daher die Bezeichnung Karat flir Goldgewichte, aus gr. keratia 'lohan­ nisbrotbohne' (etymologisch abgeleitet von 'Hom', da die Htilsenfrucht eine gehomte Form und eine homartige Struktur hat; dt. Karat geht also belegbar auf 'Hom' zuruck, Uber 'Bohne'; soviel zu semantisch plausiblen Etymologien).17 siliqua ist wohl eine Ableitung von silex, Gsg. silicis 'Feuerstein': Bohnen sehen ja aus wie glatte Kieselsteinchen. Das unterliegende Etymon ist wohl *silekw- oder *selekw-, das selbst keine klare Etymologie hat. Eine Herleitung aus *skelekw- (mit Dissimilation) und Verbindung mit mittelirisch sceillec < *skellenk(w)- sind denkbar (Walde-Hoffmann), in welchem Fall es sieher ein Substratwort ist, das zur 'Sprache der Geminaten' pass! (wegen I ~ II und kw ~ nkw).

Perhaps then my etymology for siliqua is not better than what is in the books, failing for chronological and semantic reasons. I would like to let it stand nevertheless, together with Schrijver's reservations; if this is in­ deed a wrong route, at least no-one will have to take it again.

3. On penny

In Vennemann 2006b I offered an explanation for the penny word by deriving it from Punic +panreh [panel (plur. panim) 'face', because Carthaginian coins almost all show the face of the goddess Tanit (by­ named PNB'L, i.e. +pane Ba'al 'Face-of-Baal) on the obverse side, and because expressions meaning 'face' or 'head' for coins are on record. 492 Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling'

Gerhard Schon (Munich), a specialist in numismatics (cf. SchOn 2002, 2005 [2008\), adds the following information and reservations in an e­ letter of 10 December 2008:

Gratulation WI' Entdeckung del' sprachlichen Verwandtschaft von Schilling und dem phonizischen Sheqel, die eindrucksvoll ZUI' Deutung von Pfennig als 'Kopfstlick' passt, welch letztere freilich bereits VOl' 150 Jahren durch Hermann GROTE in den Miinzsludien I (1855/57) 143 (dort allerdings als 'keltische' Bezeichnung der romischen Denare als 'Kopfstlicke') Eingang in die numisma­ tische Literatur gefunden hatte und deshalb moglicherweise auch Ihren Studenten bekannt war. Hat auch in keltischen Sprachen ein Wort penn flir 'Kopf, Haupt, Hauptling, Anftihrer' exisitiert?

There is Bretonic penn 'head', Welsh pen 'head, top'. A problem with this Celtic etymology for penny is the Germanic evidence for the root vowel a, umlauted by the suffixal i, leading to a traditional reconstruc­ tion as +paning, +panning, +panding (cf. Vennemann 2006b: 270). This may be the reason why Grote's etymology is not mentioned in the ety­ mological dictionaries. - SchOn continues:

Aus den Begriffen 'Kopfstiick' (Pfennig) und 'Schekelsttick' (Schilling) ist mir noch nicht ersichtlich, in welchem Wertverhaltnis die beiden urspriinglich zu­ einander standen. Zu klaren ware also noch, warum del' 'Schilling' im 6. Jh. als Synonym einer Goldmiinzsorte (solidus) auftaucht, der Pfennig abel' cine Sil­ bermiinze bezeichnet. Dieses Wertverhaltnis hat sich bekanntlich in karolingi­ scher Zeit in den Rechnungseinheiten (12 Pfennig = I Schilling) niedergeschla­ gen und in Deutschland bis ins 19. Jh., in Britannien bis ins 20. Jh. gehalten.

Unfortunately I am not able to carry out the research necessary to clari­ fy these relationships. It could weaken one or both of my etymologies. - Schon continues:

'Kopfstiick' (ital. testone, frz. teston, port. tostao) tibrigens tritt als Mtinzname auch wieder in del' friihen Neuzeit auf, nunmehr aufgrund der Renaissanceportrats del' ersten Mtinzen diesel' Art, und bezeichnete auch in Deutschland den Drittelgulden (20 Kreuzer) als Silberrniinze bis zur Wahrungsumstellung nach der Reichsgriindung von 1871. Die so beschrifteten Stiicke mussten im 18. Jh. gar keinen Kopf mehr als Mtinzbild haben (zur Illustration in der Anlage: Fulda Schon 26; Trier SchOn 45).18

These coins show the text "1 KOPFSTUCK" (Fulda) and "1 HALB KOPFFSTUCK" (Trier) but no picture of a head or face on either side. Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling' 493

With regard to the term Schiisselpfennig used in Vennemann 2006b: 272f., SchOn adds:

'SchUsselpfennig' meint wooer die goldenen RegenbogenschUsselchen der Kelten (das waren keine Pfennige) noch die byzantinischen 'nummi scyphati', sondern bezeichnet die in deutschen Landen im Spiitmittelalter und der frtlhen Neuzeit hergestellten schUsselfOrmigen KleinmUnzen (Pfennige, Heller) aus Silberiegierungen oder reinem Kupfer.

For Balzen, mentioned in Vennemann 2006b: 274, n. 8, Schon provides the following confirming information:

Zum Batzen habe ich in meiner Diss. [Schon 2005 (2008)], p. 80, n. 460, geschrieben: "als Plappart, franzosisch blafard, mit dem Berner Stadtwappen eingeftihrt und noch im 15. lahrhundert nach dem Mtinzbild des als rollend

All told, I believe that the Phoenician etymologies for penny and shilling are worthy of further consideration and discussion. For the ety­ mology of Lat. siliqua this is less clear.

Notes

Original publication. 1. In different manuscripts; thus, schillinges in Ancrene Riwle, Cotton Ms. Cleopatra C. VI (Dobson 1972: 293, line 2); sieles in Ancrene Riwle, Gon­ ville and Caius College Ms. (Wilson 1954: 46, line 8, cf. siches for sieles in Pepys 2498, Zettersten 1976: 173, line 6). 2. Br¢ndal (1917: 147-149) argues that the shilling-word would be best ex­ plained as a cultural loan-word. I agree with this assumption, as will be seen directly. However, the phonological derivation he proposes is indeed far from direct or cogent: silicula (diminutive of siliqua) > *sCJ1l!cia> *slecla> *sklefa> *skella or *skera, then the addition of -ing to the former of these two hypothetical results. - I will show below (in the Appendix) that Lat. 494 Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling'

siliqua and the shilling-word derive from the same etymon through cultural borrowing. 3. The reason for interpolating the adjectival base is that "in the older stages of Gmc., the -ing-derivations are denominal". 4. These etymologies are also listed, together with bibliographical references, in Orel 2003: s.v. *skellin3az. 5. The symbols q and *are used in the Semitological literature for the same consonant, a voiceless emphatic velar plosive (Lipinski 1997: § 18. I). 6. Cf. Vennemann (2000f: § 2) for a list of correlates of smooth and abrupt cut in German. 7. Lutz (2004) studies the raising of OE 10:1 to Early ME j,d (together with that of OE lre:/ to Early ME /s:/) in a syllable-cut framework as the initial part - the "first push" of the Great Vowel Shift. 8. These observations are in harmony with the analysis of syllable cut proper­ ties of Semitic generally and of Hebrew in particular by Restle (2003: 159- 164), who also cites the Semitologicalliterature on this topic. 9. With the tensing of the stressed vowel leading to its rising, as in Hebrew. 10. This was apparently a general tendency in Punic, cf. the following passage from Friedrich and Rollig 1999: § 97.c, where the reference is to Meyer 1966-1972): "1m Poenulus gut bezeugt ist die sekundare Gemination, 'die einen an sich in offener Silbe stehenden Vokal von den durch Wort- und Satzdruck bedingten Vercinderungen in Qualitat und Quantitiit ausnimmt' (Meyer, H. Gr. I § 28, 3 a)." 11. This word does not stand alone within Greek. Also borrowed from Semitic is /-Lvii 'Mine (Gewicht und Mtinze = 100 Drachmen), (Frisk 1991: s.v.), probably from Phoenician, cf. Phoen. m-n-y- 'to count out, offer (money)' (Kmhmalkov 2000: s.v. M-N- Y II), Hebr. miiniJ.h vb. 'to count, number, reckon, assign', miimeh n[omen1 m[aseulinum] 'maneh, mina, a weight': "The weight of the mina was 1160 of talent; i.e., acc[ording] to older (Bab[ylonianl) standard, 982.2 grammes (= 60 shekels at c. 16.37 g.) = c. 2 lbs." (Brown et al. 1979: s.vv.). Greek p.vii in its turn was borrowed into Latin as mina 'ein griech. Gewicht; Mtinze' (Walde/Hofmann 1982: s.v.). 12. At least this meaning has been conjectured, cf. the initial quotation from the OED. 13. The Proto-Semitic root was +l-!}-l-, as in Arab. [akula [8a\}:ulaJ 'to be heavy (perf.r, [a!}l rOals:l] 'load'. Proto-Sem. +[changed into s in Canaanite (Mos­ cati et al. 1980: § 8.17). 14. Walde/Hofmann (1982: s.v.) refer to various etymological attempts; but these only cover the botanical meanings. IS. OHG silihha 'coin, a coin' is, of course, borrowed Lat. siliqua. 16. Anumis Mtinzen-Lexikon, www.anumis.de/lcxikon/e/peOI2.html (8 Febru­ ary 2009). Germanic +skellingaz 'shilling' 495

17. Frisk (1973: s. v. KEpas 'Hom') has Ta KEpdno. 'die Frtichte des lohannis­ brotbaums' and, derived from it, K€paT{a fern. 'lohannisbrotbaum'. 18. The reference is to Schon 2002. The silver testao depicted at the Internet site "Collections homepage: 10ao V (1703-1750)" (cf. http://www.pedro­ amaral.com/coin504.html,8 February 2009) shows no head or face.