Re: [tied] Arminius/Hermann

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

> 12-04-2004 18:15, ND wrote:
>
> > How true/false is "Hermann" as a Germanicized
> > construction for Arminius (he of the Teutoburg Forest
> > fame)?
> >
> > I think it was Martin Luther who came up with
> > "Hermann." Do we have anything more recent for
> > Arminius?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Nirmal Dass
>
> It's definitely a folk etymology. Hermann reflects *xarja-manna-
> (literally = 'army-man'), which would have been Latinised as

something

> like Chariomannus at that time. The Latin renderings of Germanic

and

> Celtic names were on the whole quite accurate and there is no

reason to

> suppose that the form Arminius was seriously garbled (especially as
> Arminius had served in the Roman army and was personally well known

to

> Roman commanders). The Cheruscan form must have been something

fairly

> close to *arminjaz, however we etymologise it; perhaps a telescoped

form

> of a name beginning with *ermana- 'great'.
>

In Kuhn's view, Arminius wouldn't have spoken a Germanic language at
all but some Nordwestblock language. Some members of his family have
non-Germanic names (Segestes), some Germanic (Sigimerus). This might
represent the beginning of Germanic's linguistic conquest of the
Nordwestblock. It would also be the background of the different
ideologies of Arminius and the "proper" Germanic Marbod in their
conflict as related in Tacitus' annals.

Torsten