Re: [tied] Re: Ingvar and Ivar

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 6150
Date: 2001-02-16

Of course the derivation works the other way round (I understand it's just a banal slip, but let me straighten it out for the sake of clarity): *xanxistaz > hestr and *xangistaz > Hengst. Thanks, Torsten, it's a stimulating idea. Vernerian alternations between etymologically related Germaic words are not unheard-of: German Hase : English hare, for example, or Gothic aihan : OHG eigan, OE a:gen 'to own'. The question is whether Ing (*ingWaz) is a word of this type, derived from hypothetical *inxWás (pre-Germanic *enkWós?) via Verner's Law. If so, a possible [- Verner] variant would have yielded *inxWaz > *i:hWaz > hypothetical Gothic *eihs, OE *e:oh, OHG *îh, Runic *îhwaR, ON *ýr.
 
Now what's really uncanny about this conjectural reconstruction is that it looks for all the world like the problematic name of the thirteenth rune, usually glossed as "bow" or "yew", though the actual 'yew' word should not have any medial aitches (< PIE *ei-wo-) and despite being a near-homophone of the name of the rune has slightly different attested reflexes (OE i:w/e:ow [m.], OHG îwa).
 
I think this idea is worth pursuing. It would give us Ingvar = Ivar plus a novel hypothesis about the name of Rune 13. Any guesses about *énkWos ~ *enkWós?
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 4:03 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Ingvar and Ivar

What we need is a Gmc. alternation ng/nothing. The one that comes to my mind is *hang-ist-(>Scand. hest- "horse")/*hanh-ist-(>German Hengst "stallion"). A g/h (Verner?) alternation?