Re: [tied] "ger"

can you comment, then, on a name, such as 'GERhardt'?
~papa


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

> 14-10-03 20:13, Daniel J. Milton wrote:
>
>
> > Interesting idea. Can you expand on it, Piotr? Is the original
> > Germanic hypothetical? It doesn't quite fit as a translation of
> > the 'Suobi' "Us people" group of names.
> > I seem to remember another etymology, "ger-man" = "spear-man".
>
> It's a preposterous folk etymology. The 'spear' word was *gaiza-,

and

> rhotacism (*z > r) took place independently in West and North

Germanic a

> few centuries later than the first attestation of <germa:ni:>.

Also,

> <-ma:ni:> is not compatible with Germanic *mann- 'man'.
>
> > What's the earliest attestation, Caesar?
>
> Yes, and since Ariovistus is described as "rex

Germanorum", "Germani"

> and the Swebian confederacy seem to be the same thing. <germa:nus>
> 'having the same parentage' is quite plausible as a rough

translation of

> *swe:ba-, which meant something like 'people of our own stock'.
>
> Piotr