I WROTE:
> > The general form and semantics supposedly behind the Goth name
> > also appear extensively in Greek and to some degree Latin. This
> > is what happens with related languages. One IE language may be as
> > a good candidate as another.
--- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... REPLIED:
> I don't think I understand the last paragraph. And what would *got-
> mean in Greek then? And if it had been a name given by the Greek,
> you would have expected it to analyzable in Greek?
Before 500 AD, the word "Goth" referring to Goths doesn't appear in
any langauge but Greek or Latin. For the first hundred years it only
appears in Greek. (I'll put aside the Pietrossa stone for now.) It
does not appear in Ulfila. So, for a half a millenium there is no
evidence of what the Goths called themselves. After that, they may
have themselves what the Greeks and Romans called them.
On the other hand, one standard etymology for "Goth" --
Gmc.*giut/gaut/gut-, PIE *gheu-d- "pour" -- suggests that the word
itself might be found in other IE languages. And in fact Greek has a
huge vocabulary built on "pour" words, some of which may match the
Grk/Latin <Goth-> perhaps better than <*gud->. And I should say that
borrowing here (e.g., Grk > Gothic) might produce a very different
path of development.
Steve Long