As for a Celtic linguistic stratum in Denmark, I wish we knew what to
make of it. My guess is that is represents lateral linguistic
influence (during the early Iron Age the Celts were by far the most
prestigious linguistic group everywhere north of the Alps) rather
than a substrate. There are many Germanic/Celtic lexical isoglosses,
often words to do with social structure and Iron-Age technology
(*gais- is one of them). Many of them certainly diffused from Celtic
to Germanic. Sometimes (as with the Teutons) it is very hard to tell
if we are dealing with a Celtic name or (a Celticised version of) a
Germanic name (maybe in its pre-Grimm form), since the root *teut- is
amply attested in both branches. And, of course, who is to guarantee
that "tribes" like the Teutons or the Cimbri were linguistically
homogeneous?
The historical Gautar (i.e. Gauts, Geats, OE Ge:atas) had their
homeland in Sweden; the Goths are also supposed to have arrived in
Poland from the north, and I can't see anything speculative about the
derivation of their names from something Germanic. The question
remains, "what from?". The nost obvious possibility that presents
itself is the attested Germanic root *giut- (ablaut variants *gaut-,
*gut-) 'pour, mould, cast' (German giessen, Guss-, for example) < PIE
*g^Heud-, an extension of *g^Heu- 'pour, spring forth'. Anyways, the
Gautar's name represents the thematic stem *gaut-a-, and that of the
Goths, a weak (nasal) stem *gut-o:n-; both can well be deverbal, and
the brilliant idea has just dawned on me that they might mean "(Iron-)
Founders" (Lat. fundo: 'melt, cast' comes from the very same root,
with a nasal infix, *g^Hu-n-d-).
Don't let modern spellings fool you, and always check twice if a word
contains <ae> or <ea>. The spelling <ae> in forms inherited via Latin
was usually meant to represent the original diphthong *ai, while Old
English <e:a> almost always goes back to Germanic *au.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph S Crary
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 12:28 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Urartu.
> Piotr not sure if you are saying Geata and Goth are related or not?
My question is, since we know there was an earlier Celt linguistic
stratum in Denmark, isn't it speculative to assume that Geata is
derived from a nordic-German root? Just asking?