Re: [tied] Bear (and bull) in Gothic

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 36623
Date: 2005-03-04

On 05-03-03 15:16, João Simões Lopes Filho wrote:

> Is there a Gothic word for "bear" (the animal, Ursus arctos)?

The nasal stems *ber-an- 'bear' and *bul-an- 'bull' are no doubt PGmc.,
but happen to be unattested in Gothic. They both have secondary
variants, u-stem *bernu- (based on the old acc.pl. ber-n-unz) and
*bull-an- (from the old weak allomorph *bul-n- > *bull-, with another
nasal extension).

Piotr