Being Frank / Soyons Francs

[fare]

I'm François from France. My name is Old French for "Frenchy", back from the time when "French" used to mean "German". Are you confused yet?

The Franks were a coalition of german tribes that conquered Roman Gaul

Comments

Self-identification

[hodja]

Over time, I developed serious doubts about our ability to understand how people in earlier ages self-identified. This particular issue has been subjected to so much intentional disinformation (including both destruction and fabrication of evidence) that the truth may well have been lost for all practical purposes.

Another very interesting and relevant phenomenon affecting the confusion in this area is the well-documented feature of the human mind called Stockholm-syndrome. The most amazing characteristic of it being that in most cases it is entirely honest and sincere on the subjective level. First, people have one loyalty, then a bit later they have the opposite loyalty and also sincerely believe that they have always had the loyalties that they currently have. We are quite capable of retroactively re-construing our enthusiastic and loyal service in the past as reluctant submission or even skillful deception. The evolutionary pressures that resulted in this behavior are not very difficult to identify and they are quite strong

a resemblance does not an etymology make

[muttering_ogre]

The Germanic cognate of fracture is break.

[fare]

"The"? You mean a word is allowed only one cognate allowed, ever, between two languages? Break is clearly related to fracture and the latin verb frangere, and very likely so to old german fra[n][g]k. From GCIDE:

frank \frank\ (fr[a^][ng]k), a. [Compar. {franker}
(fr[a^][ng]k"[~e]r); superl. {frankest}.] [F. franc free,
frank, L. Francus a Frank, fr. OHG. Franko the name of a
Germanic people on the Rhine, who afterward founded the
French monarchy; cf. AS. franca javelin, Icel. frakka. Cf.
{Franc}, {French}, a., {Franchise}, n.]

Break \Break\ (br[=a]k), v. t. [imp. {broke} (br[=o]k), (Obs.
{Brake}); p. p. {Broken} (br[=o]"k'n), (Obs. {Broke}); p. pr.
& vb. n. {Breaking}.] [OE. breken, AS. brecan; akin to OS.
brekan, D. breken, OHG. brehhan, G. brechen, Icel. braka to
creak, Sw. braka, br[aum]kka to crack, Dan. br[ae]kke to
break, Goth. brikan to break, L. frangere. Cf. {Bray} to
pound, {Breach}, {Fragile}.]

[muttering_ogre]

I'll rephrase that. The Proto-Indo-European root bhreg became Latin frag (whence English fragment, fracture, frangible etc) and Germanic brek (whence English break).

If Frank is a Germanic root, rather than a borrowing from some other branch of IE, then by Grimm's Law its Latin cognate would begin with p not f.

[fare]

Oh, it's entirely possible that franko/frakka, a word with few related words in old german, was itself being borrowed from latin, or derived from a mispronounciation, pun, or whatever. It seems to me a probable derivation, though indeed not one that follows the usual route. I suppose my point is to dispel the sacred nature of the name of the tribe, and trace it back to its violent and bloody origins.

[fare]

My friend Denis M. tells me that Slav seems to be related to slovo "word" (i.e. people who can speak, as opposed to barbarians) and slava "glory, worship" (i.e., people who worship the correct gods), both of which are indeed names that people who won the wars that matter would use for themselves; whereas Svoboda seems to be related with Schwaben, Suebi, Sabines, Semnones, etc - self-owners.

But as he also says, slav meaning both free and slave is more satisfying for literary reasons.

[fare]

Also, the history of first names tells us that often a name is adopted because it sounds like an earlier name. It's very possible that people who started as merely free men who own themselves swa-bod (or some other word that sounded similar) when victorious over other tribes let her name be reinterpreted as meaning "glorious" as the pronunciation shifted from contact with other tribes. (It's bad policy to promote freedom when you're yourself the enslaving conqueror.)

[fare]

What did you think these farmers were anyway? Buddhas or something? Don't make me laugh! There's no creature on earth as wily as a farmer! Ask 'em for rice, barley, anything, and all they ever say is, 'We're all out.' But they've got it. They've got everything. Dig under the floorboards. If it's not there, try the barn. You'll find plenty. Jars of rice, salt, beans, sake! Go up in the mountains. They have hidden fields. They kowtow and lie, playing innocent the whole time. You name it, they'll cheat you on it! After a battle, they hunt down the losers with their spears. Listen to me! Farmers are misers, weasels, and cry-babies! They're mean, stupid murderers! Damn! I could laugh till I cry! But tell me this: Who turned them into such monsters? You did! You samurai did! Damn you to hell! In war, you burn their villages, trample their fields, steal their food, work them like slaves, rape their women, and kill 'em if they resist. What do you expect 'em to do? What the hell are farmers supposed to do? - Kikuchiyo in ... )