Actually, the OHG form is idis/itis 'lady,
noblewoman' (pl. idisi, a feminine root noun) = Old Saxon idis, Old English ides
(pl. idesa). Old Norse dís (pl. dísir) 'ancestral female spirit; foremother' is
quite close semantically, so a common etymology is often accepted despite formal
difficulties. One would need to posit PGmc. *idi:s- with dialectal loss of the
initial vowel. Not impossible, especially as the non-rhotacised -s- guarantees
original stress on the second syllable. The d sound outside OHG corresponds to
Proto-Germanic *d and so doesn't match the *T of *aiT-i:n- directly. In theory,
relationship via Verner's Law (*iTí:-s- > *idi:s-) could be considered, with
*iTí:- being a hypothetical stress/apophonic alternant of *áiTi:-, but this
becomes extremely speculative, given the unclear etymology of both words and the
different though relatable senses "mother" and "lady". Only non-Germanic
cognates could help us here. Any ideas, anybody?
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] mother: *xanos, *xana, *hana, or
*ana?
Is this OHG eidî
related to the German and Saxon ides, idi, etc, and Norse
disir?