Re: Vanir,etc.

From: Marco Moretti
Message: 29439
Date: 2004-01-12

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Marco Moretti"
> <marcomoretti69@...> wrote:
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Vani, vanir very rough resemblance?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Insist to your heart's content. You seem obsessed by calling
> > > everything I find a chance resemblance.
> >
> > If I'm not wrong, the Caucasian people of Kartvelian origin is
> named
> > Svani. Now, there's nothing in Germanic assuring the presence of
an
> > old initial sibilant in Vanir (< *wani-).
>
> I assume you read the link I provided? <Vani>, not <Svani>.


Svani was read in another link, but the substance is the same.
The quote from the link you provided is:

"Kingdom of Vani
As per Alexeev, the Kingdom of Vani is in existence in the
seventh/sixth century BC and lasts until the first century AD. This
kingdom is located in Georgia close to the Black Sea; Vani is also
the name of a town. This kingdom is influenced by Greece but it also
has its native cultural traditions. Linguists do not know which
languages were spoken [Arutiunov says the language most probably was
early Zanic]; however, inscriptions on gravestones are in Greek. This
site has been excavated for thirty years revealing a great square
with architecture similar to Greece. The Vani people are metal users.
Iron is used for tools, with an occasional implement made of bronze;
bronze is considered very valuable. Thus in the early Iron Age there
is a mixing of a new tradition of iron with the old tradition of
bronze."

It's very feeble. First we have to know the etymology of the toponym
Vani (a town). Is it Kartvelian? Is it pre-Kartvelian substrate? From
what remote source? What's the original meaning of the theonym Vanir?
In any case the Nordic theonym is not locative in its origin:
Vanaheimr, Vanaland are clearly derived from a pl. genitive of Vanir
plus /heimr/ and /land/. But what the pre-IE Germanic root wani-
meant? I think it was a word for "bright", probably also "divine".
If I'm not wrong there is an isolated Anglo-Saxon
word, /wanum/ "bright" that is formed from the same root.


> >So the matchup is rough.
> > It is a word with a plain structure, it can be found almost
> > everywhere.
> >
>
> In that case, please provide three or four.

Hurrite /wan-/ is "to win" (an IE loanword?)
Pre-IE substratum in Greek /wan-ak-/ is "a prince, a king"
Etruscan /Van-th/ is a "Fate Goddess" and the sentence /malak van-ka/
read in one vascular inscription is "good fortune".
If I had more time I could add a dozen items in /wan(i)-/.
Perhaps tomorrow I'll make you known if I found some Kartvelian or
other matchups.

> > You don't reconstruct protolanguages then trying to find links
> > between protoforms with regular or at least explainable phonetic
> > correspondence, you have a quite kinky methodology.
> > Without knowing something about a topic, you choose some match
> > looking only for chance resemblance, then you think it is the
> > evidence of something mysterious and deep, and you build up very
> > quickly a whole pseudo-history of Polynesian Vikings, alien
> > Cosmonauts and other funny things.
> >
>
> People in this part of the world find nothing mysterious and deep
> about boats.

Boats are quite common already in ancient times, what is awkward is
Maori or Hawaiian presence in prehistoric, pre-IE Sweden.

Regards

Marco