Re: [tied] Re: A "Germanic" query

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 12395
Date: 2002-02-19

But <erilaz> occurs commonly in Old Runic, long before the loss of medial /x/. As I have just shown, the addition of an orthographic <h-> in Latinised Germanic proper names is both explicable and well documented. Neither in Scandinavian nor in West Germanic, where the syncopated variant *erla- is amply attested, does it have religious connotations. The "erils" were people -- Germanic VIPs of some kind, to be sure, but not gods, demigods or legendary heroes.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 11:11 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: A "Germanic" query

How about the etymology I proposed in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/11838 *)
(please ignore the headline)?
Tacitus(?) says the Germani worshiped Hercules. If his name went
unchanged (sort of) between Greek, Romans and Etruscans, the Germani
might have known him under the same name.
 
*)
And if Greek Herakles, Etruscan Hercle, Latin Hercules was borrowed
into pre-Proto-Germanic it would (assuming they dropped the
unfamiliar <h>) become *er(V)x(V)l- (zero or one V) in Proto-Germanic
and *er(V)l- in Proto-North-Germanic (<x> is dropped in inlaut and
auslaut causing long vowel which would shorten and then disappear in
unstressed syllable). So if Hercules is *wagn- is Mars, then the
bloodthirsty rites of the Heruli are rites for Mars, also described
similarly. (Perhaps even the "borrowed <h>" might explain "h-
droppping" in herul-/eril- that linguists (or historians?) have
permitted themselves, without sufficient explanation.