Old Church Slavic <rum-> was most
likely borrowed from some northern Greek dialect in which <rho:maioi> was
pronounced [ruméi] (cf. the Arabic word for Byzantium). Gothic <Ru:ma,
Ru:mo:neis> and similar Germanic forms are difficult to explain. The ultimate
source seems to be Latin (Ro:ma:n- rather than Etruscan Rumach), but I don't
know the route of the borrowing. Maybe a conservative form of the word travelled
early from Northern Italy into Central Europe. By the way, does anyone (Chris
Gwinn?) know the earliest Celtic words for Rome and the Romans?
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 11:23 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Rim-?
But as you might have guessed I wondered: why Ru:ma in
Gothic, when
that's Old Latin and Etruscan (and by extrapolation(?)
Lemnian). When
did the Goths arrive in the North Pontic area and who did
they find
there?