On Fri, 2 Mar 2001 16:25:36 +0100, "Piotr Gasiorowski"
<
gpiotr@...> wrote:
>Germanic names *could* in theory contain the element hu:n- 'Hun(nish)', since all Germanic languages had the word in question (OE Hu:nas, Hu:ne, OIcel. Húnar, MHG Hiune). The history of the Huns was well known to all ("Aetla we:old Hu:num ...") and assimilated into Germanic tribal legends. In Germanic epics, Attila's kingdom is anything but barbarian or even exotic. The Huns are just like the Goths or the Burgundians. Your irony is unjustified. Nobody's career would be jeopardised for dragging in the Huns. The problem is rather that ethnonyms are not conspicuous as first-name elements in Germanic. Animal names, on the other hand, are very often used in this function (Wulf, Ulf, Wulfstan, Cuthwulf, Hrothulf, Wulfila, Wolfram, Athelwulf, Beowulf, Arnulf, etc., as well as Björn, Hengest and Horsa, Cubba, Catta, etc.). Hu:n-sta:n is just no less and no more logical than the common name Wulf-sta:n -- a name was composed of conventional elements and didn't have to mean much or serve as a
talisman.
In Dutch, megalithic monuments are traditionally known as <hunebedden>
"Hun's beds". De Vries & Tollenaere's etymological dictionary has
this to say about the word <hunebed>:
"latere overlevering schreef deze bouwwerken uit de steentijd aan
reuzen toe; in het 1e deel heeft men wel de naam van de Hunnen menen
te herkennen, maar men moet uitgaan van een word <Hûn>, waarmee
vroeger de Saksen en de Franken aangeduid werden; toen dit woord
buiten gebruik raakte, werd het opgevat als naam van een
voorhistorisch volk." ("later traditions attributed these Stone Age
monuments to giants; the 1st part of the word has been linked to the
name of the Huns, but one has to depart from a word <Hûn>, which was
formerly used to denote the Saxons and the Franks; when this word
became obsolete, it was taken to be the name of a prehistoric people".
Cf. in Kluge's German et. dict. (17th ed.):
"Hüne m. frühnhd. nd. heune, mhd. hiune 'Riese' (diese Bed. seit dem
13. Jh.). Dasselbe wie mhd. Hiune, ahd. asächs. Hûni>, Hûn "Hunne"
(mlat. Hunus, Hunnus, gr. Hoûnnoi). Der Stamm Hûn- in germ.
Männernamen wie ahd. Hûnprecht, Hûnbolt, ags. Hûnbold, -gar, anord.
Hûngerðr, Hûnþjôfr ist nicht eins damit, sondern bed. 'Tierjunges',
bes. 'junger Bär', vgl. anord. hûnn 'Bärenjunges', norw. mundartl. hûn
'junger Bursche'. Auf einen vorgerm. Völkernamen deuten hess. Hünfeld
an der Hauna."
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...