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Re: German "Stein"

Subject: Re: German "Stein"
From: "Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim"
Date: 29 Dec 2006 11:14:42 -0800
Newsgroups: sci.lang
ekkilu@xxxxxxxxx schrieb:

> Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim wrote:
> > heliogabalus wrote:
> >
> > > "Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim" <Jdibrahim@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > > news:1167315478.043350.151890@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > 2. What does the name Einstein mean?
> > > ...
> > > about 1683 from Gundelfingen which is near Burgau; Sauer [Gemeinden,
> > > p.31] shows Baruch Moses Ainstein [presumably Moises' father] as having
> > > been admitted in 1665, coming from Wangen am Untersee [Lower Lake
> > > Constance] whose migrants, in turn, also came partly from the Burgau
> > > area."
> > >
> > > http://www.jm-hohenems.at/mat/702_AFJMH_Newsletter_4_1.pdf
> >
> > Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. This indeed helps.
>
> Found another article on Google:
>
>                                 www.welt.de/data/2005/07/25/750278.html">http://www.welt.de/data/2005/07/25/750278.html
>
> I think the conclusion so far is:
>
> (1) As of now, nobody knows for sure where the surname Einstein comes
> from.
> (2) It is unlikely that the "stein" in "Einstein" comes from stone,
> like in other cases (e.g. Bernstein.)
>
> The article offers another possible explanation: it could have come
> from Yiddish:
>
> "Ich wolt gewolt ajnshtejn" / "Ich'l ajnshteijn"
> = "Ich möchte mich hier niederlassen"
> = "I would like to establish myself here"
>
> -- Ekki

Thanks Ekki at least we have got a bit further but I realize it is an
inter-disciplinary issue and not only a linguistic one. An idea just
occurred to me that because of th same [ei] sound  in Ein und Stein
some kind of confusion must have been at work.


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