Odp: [cybalist] Balto-Slavic gud-

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2055
Date: 2000-04-06

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Sergejus Tarasovas
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 3:55 PM
Subject: [cybalist] Balto-Slavic gud-
 
I actually meant *gud-a:n- + -išk but the Lithuanian reflex of *a: slipped in. Thank you for the exact parallel. These etymologies (whether they involve botany or something else) make much more sense than anything I've seen so far. As for the Goths, they don't seem to have lived on the coastal plain or on the Gulf of Gdańsk, but at some distance from the Baltic, in the southern part of Pomerania, northern Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), Kujavia, etc. At any rate new maps of Gothiscandia based on up-to-date archaeological evidence place them there.
 
I've found another Gdów in Poland, some 20 km southeast of Kraków and pretty far from either Northern Polish "Gothiskandia" or the recently discovered later Gothic settlement area near Hrubieszów. I'll check if there is an accepted etymology (mind you, it may turn out to be nothing special, e.g. a dialectal distortion of *wIdow-I (possessive of 'widow'; wdowa may be pronounced gdowa in Polish dialects, and I don't even know if the gen. of Gdów is Gdowa or Gdowia, if I did that would settle the matter). I haven't located Gdzew yet (though Mazovia is my country); it's probably an inconspicuous village.
 
Cheers,
 
Piotr
 

 
Why not *gud-a:n- + -išk-, which is a direct parallel to a real name of village in Lithuania (Vilnius district): Gudoniškės<*gud-a:n-išk- (yes, my list was a simplified one, can you believe?). As for Gdynia, this could well may be from *gud-o:n-ia:, as Slavs often rendered (close) o: as y in borrowings, and the suffix -uon- (<o:n), including combinations -uon-ė (<o:n-ia:) is a reality in Lithuanian toponymy (up to 70 examples), but we can also consider *gud-u:n-, cf. REAL examples like Gudžiūnai (<*gud-j-u:n-) (one of them near Jurbarkas, close to former Prussian border) from my list.
 
Please note that this doesn't imply I agree with that botanical meaning of the *gud- in these examples.
 
Sergei