Christopher Gwinn wrote:
> Parvati should perhaps come from Sanskrit parvata "mountain"
I was taught (if I remember correctly!) that pârvatî is derived
from parvata using a straightforward and entirely productive
derivational process called secondary suffixation - that is, applying
"taddhita pratyaya", which builds new nominal stems from old ones.
Primary suffixation (creating nominal stem from verbal root):
budh (awaken) + ta (primary suffix) > *bhudhta > buddha (awakened)
Secondary suffixation (building new nominal forms):
buddha + vRddhi (vowel change) > bauddha (a Buddhist)
manah (mind) > mânasa (mental)
puruSah (man) > pauruSeya (human)
kuntî (Kunti) > kaunteyah (male connected to Kunti, her son, Arjuna)
I believe Pârvatî is always assumed to mean "She of the Mountain" in India.
Dennis King