oa CIJNS en TIJNS, één belasting twee termen

CIJNS and TIJNS, one tax two terms. Origin and reciprocal influence, and the complex relation between CIJNS and ASSIJS

Dutch has two terms, CIJNS and TIJNS, for one type of tax. A third term, ACCIJNS, which in older Middle Dutch is ASSIJS denotes another type of tax. CIJNS is written with dozens of spellings, for instance cense, chens, cins, tsins, sise, tseys, cyes, whereas the spelling of TIJNS is more or less stable, as can be established on the basis of 13^th and 14^th century Middle Dutch corpora. It is argued that

1. CIJNS and TIJNS come from Latin CENSUS without intervention of Romance,
   • CIJNS, the southern form in Middle Dutch, via Old French C(H)ENS;
   • TIJNS, the northern form of Middle Dutch, via Low German TINS and High German ZINS, the T having originated in Low German;
2. the many spelling variations of CIJNS are due to
   • the vowel of TIJNS which has influenced the vowel of CIJNS, for instance cens > cins;
   • ASSIJS which in one area has temporarily lead to the loss of the n in CIJNS, for instance sinse > sise, cijns > cijs; later in the same and an adjacent area the opposite trend has led to ACCIJNS, in which CIJNS has become a derivation;
   • the absorption of the [n] by the preceding vowel of Old French CENS resulting in pronunciations such as [sẽ:s] or [sẽjs], sometimes perceived by Flemish speakers without nasality as for instance [sejs] noted seys;
   • the begin group of Old French C(H)ENS reproduced in Dutch as for instance c, ch, ts, cs, tz, s and pronounced as [ts], [tʃ], [s], [ʃ].