Re: Germanic declensions?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Smith"
> <mytoyneighborhood@...> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > What is the (reconstructed I assume) Germanic nominative plural
> > equivalent of the latin -i, such as occurs in tribal names such

as

> > Alemanni, Marcomanni, Marsi, etc.? In other words, what would

tribal

> > names such as these have been in Germanic?
>
> -o:z before the reduction of unstressed vowels kicked in. The

Romans

> correctly identified the Germanic a-stems (masculine) with the

Latin

> 2nd declension.
>

PIE *ey-os > -ijaz (cf holtijaz "from Holt" or "forest man" on the
golden horn from Gallehus; the landscape Holstein nearby was
originally an etnonym '(bi den) Holt-seten' "(at the) forest-
dwellers" > Low German 'Holsten' > High Germanised 'Holstein'.
Cf. also Vangio:nes, nom.sg. Vangio:; the Romans identified this
suffix with -io:(n)-.



Torsten