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Help[Surname] Re: German surname SCHEWHM / SCHWEMM
in reply to a message by Lepic
Here are some SCHWEMMs:
https://forebears.io/de/surnames/schwemm
for comparison:
https://forebears.io/search?q=Schwehm
https://forebears.io/de/surnames/schwemm
for comparison:
https://forebears.io/search?q=Schwehm
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Replies
Is this a particularly Westpfälzisch group of names? Standard German for "roam/wander" is schweifen, but Westpfälzisch seems more inclined to nasalize b/f before n (although that's not uncommon in many languages, cf. -ram v -raban in OHG, and somnus v sopor- in Latin).
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I have tried to find an etymological connection between schweifen and sweimen, but wasn't able to find anything. I also didn't read anything about sweimen being a Palatinate word. As far as I know, nothing similar is in use in the Palatinate dialects today. There seems to be nothing comparable in Old High German.
The change from f to m does not seem very likely to me.
The change from f to m does not seem very likely to me.
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The change from bilabials and labiodentals F/v/p/b to m before n is a common development in many languages, no matter how "not … very likely" it seems to you. The mn then tends to simplify to m(m or n(n if there's no following vowel. Besides OHG Ram alongside Raban and Rabo for "raven", there's Westpfälzisch hann for standard High German haben "have", Icel. hrafn alongside hramn, "raven", or OE hræmn/hræm alongside hræfn, Latin somnus alongside sopor "sleep" and Danish søvn alongside Swedish sömn “sleep”. "n" following the labiodentals and bilabials is a difficult combination — either an intrusive vowel (as in Raban and English raven), or a nasalization to m occurs spontaneously. In the European languages the n seems to be part of an alternate n-stem declension of the root, and versions without this declension occur in some languages (e.g. Latin sopor and OHG Rabo — the alternate n-stem occurs with non-labial roots as well, without loss of the preceding consonant, e.g. OHG Aro and Arn, "erne/eagle").
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This may very well be. So if you can find any evidence for a connection between schweifen and sweimen, I'd be gald to learn more about this.
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After more research the connection appears to be ancient — G. schweifen and MHG. sweimen seem to be cognates, along with schweben, Ice. svifa, sveima, svima and English swim in the phrase "made my/his/her head swim". The word meaning "flood" you refer to above is probably just another application of the root — it seems to have described the fast swooping, sweeping, soaring, wandering, dizzying flight of a bird, and then by analogy and extension to the movement of flames, fast flowing water, scythes, brooms, people etc.
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Thank you very much for the explanation. Your obvious expertise makes me wonder, what your sources may be, as mine have apparently failed.
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http://archive.org/stream/etymologicaldict00kluguoft
https://indo-european.info/pokorny-etymological-dictionary/index.htm
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html
http://www.bosworthtoller.com/
Since MHG sweimen has no descendant in standard German (it may survive in a different branch of High German), the comparative method is helpful. Cleasby, Pokorny, Kluge et al are all a bit dated and don't always agree, but there's not much else available for High German. Much of the OHG corpus is a different dialect to the precursor of standard German or the MHG corpus anyway, so it can be a bit of a strain finding a cognate Middle or Old High German word that resembles a modern word semantically, and surnames may come from a dialect that isn't well represented in a German-English or even a thorough German dictionary.
Schwemm with double mm should be an ablaut grade of schwimmen, probably with umlaut (according to Kluge it's the factitive, i.e. causative — OE has swemman, Danish svømme), but with surnames that can't be relied on, and I don't know how the vowel would vary with different dialects (and some dialects seem to use a different orthography than standard German for the same phonemes).
https://indo-european.info/pokorny-etymological-dictionary/index.htm
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html
http://www.bosworthtoller.com/
Since MHG sweimen has no descendant in standard German (it may survive in a different branch of High German), the comparative method is helpful. Cleasby, Pokorny, Kluge et al are all a bit dated and don't always agree, but there's not much else available for High German. Much of the OHG corpus is a different dialect to the precursor of standard German or the MHG corpus anyway, so it can be a bit of a strain finding a cognate Middle or Old High German word that resembles a modern word semantically, and surnames may come from a dialect that isn't well represented in a German-English or even a thorough German dictionary.
Schwemm with double mm should be an ablaut grade of schwimmen, probably with umlaut (according to Kluge it's the factitive, i.e. causative — OE has swemman, Danish svømme), but with surnames that can't be relied on, and I don't know how the vowel would vary with different dialects (and some dialects seem to use a different orthography than standard German for the same phonemes).
This message was edited 7/22/2018, 6:39 AM
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Thanks a lot, this was very helpful!
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