Rugi and RusI

Message

Thank you for this and many others answers and comments.

Some time ago on this list you and I discussed a possible role the Germanic tribe _Rugi_ could play in the ethnogenesis of the East Slavs and in the emergence of the ethnonym _rusI_. Now at one of the forums devoted to Russian history I was asked to assess the possibility of the rendition of _Rugi_'s self-designation (whatever it be) by Old Russian _rusI_ from a linguist's point of view. Though I know how to get to grips as to the Slavic side of the problem, there's too much uncertainty for me as to the Germanic side. So I warned the members of the forum that I have to take your opinion on the matter and now I'm here with my questions:

If they were of NWGermanic.Scandinavian stock, what the exact Old Norse form of the ethnonym could look like (there's _Hagena weold Holmrygum_ in Widsith 21, and, reportedly, _Holmrygir_ in Scandinavian sources; Jordanes mentions _Hulmerugi_)? If of East Germanic (as one can suppose for Jordanes' _Hulmerugi_), what a reconstructed form could look like?

Sergei

-----Original Message-----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski [mailto:gpiotr@...]
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 10:53 AM
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: *ekwos and esel?

In theory at least, it could be a derivative of PIE *gow-r/-n- 'coat of hair, its colour', with the meaning narrowed down to 'yellowish ~ reddish ~ whitish' in Indo-Aryan. Iranian has *gauna- 'coat of hair, colour' (e.g. Av. -gaona- [in compounds], Sogd. Gwn; borrowed into Armenian as <goyn>). The derivative *gaunaka- 'sheepskin coat(?)' (an extremely productive Indo-Iranian formation) is indirectly attested as a loan in non-Iranian languages (Akkadian gunakku, Gk. gaunake:s, kaunake:s 'Persian-style cloak'; possibly even Slavic *guna ~ *gunja, from late Middle Iranian).

I don't know if Indo-Aryan gaura- 'gaur, _Bos gaurus_' is related to the colour word or just fortuitously homonymous (the gaur is blackish-brown, except for the lower parts of the legs). Some etymological dictionaries have it under *gWou- with other 'cattle' words (the sort of etymology that appears to be too simple to be true, though the name of the domesticated variety, the gayal, Skt. gavaya-, is certainly derived from {gau-}). Witzel suggests that IIr. *ga[:]ura- (including the colour, wild ass and IA gaur meanings) is the source of some Nakh 'horse' words (Chechen gowr, Ingush gawr). I'm not sure what to think of it.

Piotr