[tied] Re: suffix -ko

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

> 12-01-04 10:39, Marco Moretti wrote:
>
> > Are we sure that /*Ops-ko/ and /*Xeruska-/ < /*Kerusko-/ are

formed

> > from IE roots? Etymological explanations are very poor in the

case of

> > Osci: the name originally didn't belong to Samnites, but to a
> > submitted people of Campania, of uncertain origin; a variant

Opici

> > was also used. Cherusci may be from an IE root

for "stag", "deer",

> > still preserved in the learned English word "hart". But sigmatic
> > suffix is quite strange.
>
> I'd say that the suffix is ethnonymic *-(i)sko- in both cases, and

that

> Cherusci = *xerut-(i)ska-, either with a shorter variant of the

suffix

> or with early syncope of *-i-. *op-iko- and *op-sko-, if so

divided,

> would then be parallel forms with alternative suffixes playing the

same

> function (fpom op- 'power'?)

It is very probable, but we lack conclusive evidence. All these
ethnonyms are very ancient. In particular, we do know nothing about
the Opsci, Opici before Samnites conquer and assimilated (or
partially exterminated) them. Samnites imposed their Italic language
to the won people. It is not so sure that this Op- came from
/op-/, "power", that was very used in historic Oscan, in which /ops-/
is the common root for "to do" (even more used than /opus/ in Latin).

Regards

Marco