Well, thank you for the information. I must say I know that the name is believed to refer to the Carpathians, but as Ptolemy used the name "Carpates", the Old Norse and Latin words are incompatible. Or do I misunderstand the Grimm's Law? Why, the Old Norse /v/ must be from PG *w < PIE *w, but latin /p/ cannot be derived from PIE *w. That's why I'm asking, in fact.

Could the name be analysed internally? For example "stone-way", /har-/ being from PIE *kar "stone" and "vaða" meaning "way, passage" ???

Thank you again.

Best,

Petr

----- Original Message ----
From: llama_nom <600cell@...>
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, 4 September, 2006 11:17:09 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Hervarar saga


Hello Petr,

The name is generally believed to refer to the Carpathian Mountains.
'Harvaða' is thought to derive from a form of the name inherited from
Proto-Germanic and affected by the Proto-Germanic sound change known
as Grimm's Law whereby voiceless stops became fricatives. 'fjöllum'
is the dative plural of 'fjall' which means "mountain".

LN


--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Petr Hrubis <hrubisp@...> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> could somebody possibly tell me what exactly "Harvaða fjöllum "
means and which geographical feature it describes?
>
> Thank you very much in advance!
>
> Best,
>
> Petr
>







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