--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> By memory (so approx, sorry!)
>
> PGmc. *mag- "male relative" (and cognates in Celtic)
> PGmc. *mag-T- "maid" (German Magd)
>
> Vennemann proposes that the -T- is the Semitic feminine suffix.
>
> In the introductory chapter "Guanche words" of a translation by
> Charles Markham of Friar Alonso de Espinosa: "The Guanches of
> Tenerife" I find
>
> Guanche maguada, magath "vestal", "maid"
>
Vennemann's material, for comparison:
from Lehmann:
Gothic megs "son-in-law"
ON ma:gr,
OE mæ:g,
OHG ma:g "kinsman through marriage"
Gothic magus,
ON mo,gr,
OE mago,
OHG maga- "boy, servant"
Gothic mawi,
ON mær,
OE meowle "girl"
Gothic magaTs
OE mægD,
OHG magad "maiden"
Vennemann:
Occam maqq,
Old Irish macc "son"
Pre-Germ. *me:gaz "son-in-law, brother-in-law etc"
and
Pre-Germ. *maguz "son (in maternal line)"
don't match.
Pictish meqq "daughter" (?) (St. Ninian)
Orël/Stolbova Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary
1801 *mug.a`-/*mug.aw- "male relative"
Semitic *mah_a:`- "uncle"
Akkadian mah_a:`u
Egyptian mhw.t "relative, subordinate, family"
Western Chadic *muq.a`- "king" [some semantic change!]
1710
*mahor- "slave, soldier"
Semitic *mVhVr- "service man, soldier"
Ugaritic mhr id.
Western Chadic *mahwar- "slave"
Vennemann believes Pictish was the last remnant of his
Semitic "Atlantic".
On the other hand, Markham's "Guanche words" lists <Ha> as "feminine
termination". de Espinosa says "The children of a dissolved marriage
were looked upon as illegitimate, such a son being called <Achicuca>
[footnote: <Achi> is the article. Cuca was the son of a dissolved
marriage, but not illegitimate], and a daughter <Cucaha> [footnote:
<Cucaha> is, according to Lord Bute, the regularly formed feminine of
Cuca]".
But the difference between the -da, -th of <maguada> and <magath> and
this fiminine suffix -ha does not seem greater than that it can be
bridged be assumng dialect differences.
Torsten