Bastarnae again

Ernst S. Dick, <Bast> und <Bastard>: Ein Versuch zu einer ungeklärten
Wortgruppe (in Current issues Linguistic Theory 97, Comparative-
Historical Linguistics: IndoEuropean and Finno-Ugric) has an
interesting etymology for <bastard>: he notes that
1) bh > b
2) n. > a
3) dh+t > st
in Iranian (and Illyrian), thus
*PIE *bhn.dh-t- > *bast-
I hasten to add that the proposal is due to Herrmann Jacobsohn(1929)
for Iranian and Szemerényi(1954) for Illyrian. Personally I prefer to
believe Tacitus, so I accept the former idea. (Dick: "Jacobsohn hatte
von vornherein weniger die gesamte Wortgruppe [around bast-] im Blick
als den Völkernamen der <Bastarnen>, die als ostgermanischer Stamm
schon früh mit der Bastkultur iranischer Skythenstämme in Berührung
gekommen sein mochten". Bastkultur?


Besides the negative connotations, Dick recounrs some positive ones
too. In Gottfried von Strassburg's 'Tristan' there is a scene where
Tristan explains to a royal hunting party in Cornwall that they
should cut up the stag not according to their local customs ('alsam
en swin') but according to a "courtly" ('höfisch') flaying and
cutting practise befitting the animal (which Tristan knew).

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