Re: [tied] Goths: IE Languages vs Germanic

I wrote:
<< C. Because it has been given so little consideration, even though
we have no direct evidence that the Goths even called themselves
Goths
- a distinct possibility based on the patterns of ancient name-giving
- without their writings we might assume Greeks called themselves
Greeks.>>
Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> replied:
<<The Goths themselves had various tribal names for everyday
self-reference, but they probably used a more general collective term
as well; at least other Germanic peoples seem to have known it.>>

I don't question that. But it is also valid to point out that those
collective terms appear to be recent, ad hoc and often borrowed.
Tacitus actually says as much about the name "Germani." The whole
notion of a collective name beyond one's own villiage may be
something one learns only when outsiders come around. And they may
be
the ones doing the naming.

Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> also replied:
<<We have OE gota, pl. gotan,Êand Old Norse (Gen.pl.) gotna. They
support the form *gut-o:n.>>

It's evidence, but are there other explanations? How would
Latin-speaking scribes transliterate L. <gothones> into OE or ON -
goton? The one citation I found (a 9th C. OE of Bede - "gotena") is
obviously drawn from Latin histories. Perhaps the n-stem appeared by
analogy with OE <gotan>, poured. And by the time ON was written
down, @1200, the Goths were a matter of long ago and distant history,
with much intervening written influence. Steve