The Carpathians (Was: Re: [tied] Ukrainian words from Carpathians)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

> --- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> > I'm sure it was taken from literary sources, since
> > the mountains were known
> > as "Karpate:s oros" to Ptolemy and to later
> > geographers. Old Norse
> > <harfaða-fjöll>, however, demonstrates that the name
> > existed already in
> > Proto-Germanic times (a couple of centuries BC or
> > so).
>
> ******GK: The kindergarten linguist GK asks: because
> the Old Norse shows the operation of Grimm's law?*****

Precisely. Words borrowed just a little later, e.g. from Imperial
Latin, show no such thing.

> Afterthought: Do you have any suggestions about the
> etymology of the Greek "Karpathos" (the island
> mentioned by George S.)?

None yet, but let me think.

Piotr