--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> The most widely circulated theory about Zamolxis (it requires
Zalmoxis to be a metathetically garbled variant) is indeed the one
Torsten refers to: Zamol-ksi- = 'earth-lord (Iranian *xs^aya-)', not
unlike Lithuanian Z^eme-patis. BTW, Zamolxis was a Dacian (Getic)
god, not a Thracian one, but the whole point is that his name appears
to be mixed, Daco-Iranian. There are some formal problems here: to
get the Dacian vocalism right, the "Zamol-" part should be
reconstructed as *g^He:m-ol- (?), with rather strange vowel grades.
Albanian, which I believe to be an offshoot of Dacian, has <dhe>
[ðe] 'earth', derivable from *(dH)g^Ho:m, an entirely uncontroversial
form. Secondly, it is not clear to me how Iranian *xs^aya- is
supposed to have become Dacian ksi-, but then we do not know very
much about the fine details of Dacian phonetics.
>
> Anyway, in addition to the possibilities listed by Torsten, there
are at least two others: (1) that the analysis of Zamolxis = 'earth-
lord' is partly or completely wrong, (2) that the first element is
Iranian as well. The Iranian 'earth' stem is *zam-, after all.
>
> Thanks for checking the Herodotean spelling. There's no need to
rule out short *i, which is fine.
>
> Piotr
>
Detschew has
zalmós "Fell" [hide, fur]
and as source
Porphyr. Vita Pythog. 14: tè:n gàr doràn hoi Thra:kes zamon kaloûsi
which he quotes others as relating to Goth. <hilm-s> "helmet" etc
AngloSaxon <helm> "helmet; protector", and since the Zalmoxis forms
are older than the Zamolxis ones he concludes: "king-protector"
(personally I prefer "helmet-ruler", as I've mentioned before),
although he does mention the Zamol- "earth", Phrygian Zemelo:-,
theories. No one seems to be bothered by the satem <z> vs centum *k
(> h) equation, but there is also a variant Salmoxis.
Torsten