Germanic *kuning-az was borrowed into
Proto-Slavic as *kUnIng-U (and into East Baltic as *kunig-as, with the second
nasal lost through dissimilation) at some point after Grimm's Law but before the
Slavic progressive palatalisation. After the progressive
palatalisation the word became *kUne~dzI (e~ = nasal [e]) 'duke, prince',
hence Russian kn'az', Czech kne^z, OCSl kUne~dzI, etc.
Polish shows some curious semantic
developments. The Modern Polish reflex of *kUne~dzI is <ksia,dz> 'priest,
especially a Roman Catholic one' (pronounced [ks'ondz], where s' = voiceless
alveopalatal fricative, a 13th-century dissimilatory substitute for an older
palatal nasal [n']). The word meant "prince" (in opposition to <król>
'king') in very early Polish, but by the 14th century it was used primarily
as a polite term of address applied to priests. The Proto-Slavic meaning
was "inherited" by the Polish derivative <ksia,z.e,> (pl.
<ksia,z.e,ta>, originally a neuter diminutive in *-nt-).
The family of Polish words based on
*kuning- includes also <ksie,z.yc>, now the standard word for "moon"
(replacing inherited <miesia,c>, which now means only "month", except in
archaic or lofty styles). This word derives from *kUnIng- plus
patronymic *-itj-, meaning "son of a prince", an epithet revealing (rather
vaguely) something about the role of the lunar deity in Slavic
mythology. Perhaps the young moon was regarded as the child of the previous
month's full moon.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 1:53 PM
Subject: [tied] kuningas <-> knyaz
Is there any connection between Germanic *kuningas
"king" (as borrowed into Finnish) and Russian (and Slavic) knyaz "prince" (where
ya < a nasal vowel). This would presuppose some Pre-Gmc. *kuníngas, I
suppose?
Torsten