Re: [tied] Danaan as ethnonym.

From: Mark Odegard
Message: 3396
Date: 2000-08-26

I was going to respond to Dennis, but Glen's response says it better. His example of Enets/Nenets is a better one than what I would have given, the Dutch/Deutsch/Tuatha/Teuton example. A prime example, though, are the words Slavonian, Slovenian, Slovakian, Sorbian, Slavonic and just plain Slav, all reflexes of the same ethnonym.
 
I agree, however, that IEs, or a least a subset of them, would not have thought of themselves as a single unitary people.
 
Mark.
 
From: Glen Gordon
 
Dennis:
>In general, given the later tribal organisation of the Celts, Germans
> >etc., I think it's unlikely that the IE's would have had such a >concept
>of unity amongst themselves as to give themselves an all >encompassing
>name. These kind of generic names seem to be generally >given by outsiders.

But... careful. Afterall, look at the Nenets and the Enets. They both call themselves by the same name (even though the pronunciation is different). They are speaking different languages, albeit related ones. Ket and the extinct related language, Kott, might be another yummy example.

I think it's the same with the IE peoples. There may have been a popular name like *Danuom (?) that they used to call themselves, which is not to say that they were "united" any more or less than the Nenets and the Enets are.
Rather, it's because of their shared ancestry that these ethnonyms persist for centuries.

Just a thought.