--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" <josimo70@...> wrote:
> Has the German name Ilsa/Elsa any mythical meaning? Is it used in
Russia? ( Il'za, Ilza ?)
>
Check Hans Kuhn: Die alten germanischen Personennamen des Typs
<Hariso>.
OHG <Elis> m., <Elisa> f., O.Fr. <Eliso>, OE <Elesa>. Ammianus
<Aliso>. <Alis-> is frequent in placenames, eg the Roman camp <Aliso>
on the river Lippe, Ptolemaeus: <Ali:sus>; <Elisan-heim>, <Elisin-
dorf>.
Kuhn has several names of this type with suffix -s- which, because of
the large number of initial /a/'s he suspects belong to the pre-
Germanic 'Old European' language.
Torsten