Re: Maid

--- 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"
>
> Torsten

Hello!

The root *mag- is hardly of IE origin. I think it can be a remnant of
an ancient lost substrate. The Guanche glosses are very interesting.
I wasn't able to find them in the on-line lists of Guanche words.
Pre-IE Germanic is an interesting and very complicated stuff.

Sincerely
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Siridar of Giedi Prime