> *****GK: Something I've wondered about. We know that
> there are a number of borrowings from early Germanic
> in Slavic. Are similar borrowings ("early Germanic")
> discernible in the extant Baltic languages?******
The following lexemes are usually cited as Germanic borrowings::
Balt *alu(s) 'beer' (Lith. alu`s, Latv. alus) < Gmc *aluT (the
Germanic source seems to be after-Grimm, but probably just an old
wanderwort, cf. Ossetic Elu:t-on, Georg. dial. aludi). Can also be a
Slavicism.
Balt *klaipas 'loaf' (Lith. klie~pas, la. klaips) < Gmc *xlaibaz.
While Lith. ie~ points to something rather early (before East Baltic
development [in some cases] *ai > *e.: > ie), Baltic *k doesn't
necessarily point to pre-Grimm stage (just the closest substitution
for *h), *p could be pre-Grimm (if *hlaibaz < *klo'ipos), but most
likely reflects [f] of later Germanic forms like ON hleifr, Go hlaifs.
Balt *kwaitja- 'wheat' (Lith. kviety~s, Latv. kvies^i) < Germ
*xwaitjaz (see previous notes on ie~ and k)
Old Lith. pe~kus 'livestock' < Gmc *fexu- (since PIE *pek^u should
have normally been reflexed as **pes^u-, but quirks like *k^ > k are
not uncommon in Balto-Slavic).
Lith ku`nigas '(Catholic) priest', Latv ku`ngs 'master,lord' < Gmc
*kuningaz.
Balt *gatwe: 'street' (Lith ga~tve., Latv gatve) < Gmc *gatwo:n (post-
Grimm, if I'm not mistaken; probably, borrowed as *gatwo:(n) and
later transformed to productive e:-stem).
Balt *kelmas (OPruss kelmis 'hat') < Gmc *xelmaz. A borrowing via
Slavic is less probable but can't be excluded.
Balt *Sarwas 'armour' (Lith. s^a'rvas) and Lith mid`us 'honey' are
rather Gothic than Proto-Germanic, cf. Go sarwa and (reconstructed)
*midu; midu`s can also be a Slavicism.
OPruss (not extant, but anyway...) rikijs 'king' < Gmc *re1k-,
probably a borrowing from unattested Gothic *reikeis,
Balt *i:las 'awl' (Lith. y'la, Latv. ile,ns) < Gmc *e1la, most likely
from unattested Gothic *e:la
Balt *brunja:s (Latv brun,as, OPruss brunyos) 'coat of mail' < Gmc
*brunj-, which is in turn a Celticism. Could well has been borrowed
via Slavic.
None of these lexemes can be interpreted as 100% _Proto_-Germanic
(much less early Proto-Germanic) borrowings, while, IMO, *kwaitja-,
and, probably, *pekus and *klaipas look promising.
Sergei