Re: [tied] mother: *xanos, *xana, *hana, or *ana?

From: João Simões Lopes Filho
Message: 6193
Date: 2001-02-22

There are some attempts ro relate ON dís with Sanskrit goddess Dhi: (I think Dumezil quotes a goddess Dhis.ani:, but I'm not finding what book it is).
cf (perhaps) Latin Feronia (<*Dhis-oniya?)
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] mother: *xanos, *xana, *hana, or *ana?

Actually, the OHG form is idis/itis 'lady, noblewoman' (pl. idisi, a feminine root noun) = Old Saxon idis, Old English ides (pl. idesa). Old Norse dís (pl. dísir) 'ancestral female spirit; foremother' is quite close semantically, so a common etymology is often accepted despite formal difficulties. One would need to posit PGmc. *idi:s- with dialectal loss of the initial vowel. Not impossible, especially as the non-rhotacised -s- guarantees original stress on the second syllable. The d sound outside OHG corresponds to Proto-Germanic *d and so doesn't match the *T of *aiT-i:n- directly. In theory, relationship via Verner's Law (*iTí:-s- > *idi:s-) could be considered, with *iTí:- being a hypothetical stress/apophonic alternant of *áiTi:-, but this becomes extremely speculative, given the unclear etymology of both words and the different though relatable senses "mother" and "lady". Only non-Germanic cognates could help us here. Any ideas, anybody?
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Max Dashu
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] mother: *xanos, *xana, *hana, or *ana?

Is this OHG eidî relat