Re: [tied] Re: Pre-Germanic speculation

29-10-03 13:36, tgpedersen wrote:

> ... Borgund (Borgundærholm > Bornholm) ...
>
> For some weird reason they have same suffixes (-s, -ind, -und) as the
> supposed Anatolian placenames in Greece (-ssos, -inthos, -unthos),

They are not necessarily Anatolian. <-(i)sso-> can come from more than
one source and <-inthos> could well be Thracian. In either case we're
dealing with IE suffixes. Germanic *-und- comes from PIE *-n.t-ó-, i.e.
a thematised present participle.

> but the roots of the names are not recognizably IE (or anything),
> except for the Wanderwort *burg- (Greek pyrgos) (according to EIEC),

It's the indubitably IE root *bHerg^H- 'increase, grow strong', with
derivatives like *bHerg^Hos 'rock, mountain, barrow' (Gmc. *berga-),
*bHr.g^H-u-, *bHr.g^H-(o)nt- 'high, tall, lofty, large'. The name of the
Burgundians corresponds _exactly_ to that of the Celtic Brigantes (both
derive from *bHr.g^H-n.t-, and both are cognate to Skt. bRha(n)t-) The
meaning is something like 'big guys'.

> and possibly *sam- of Samsø, which might be taken, together with the
> Samland peninsula of East Prussia, to be related to Suomi and Saami,
> and therefore Finno-Ugric (Saami?) relic areas?

Why do you insist on *sam- being non-IE? And if it's related to Suomi,
why does it have a historically short vowel?

Piotr