Re[2]: [tied] PIE word for "people"

At 3:25:55 PM on Monday, September 26, 2005, Richard
Wordingham wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Grzegorz Jagodzinski"
> <grzegorj2000@...> wrote:

>>> My hypothesis regarding the nomenclature is that a
>>> people settled at Rome, who called each other *ro:m
>>> ('adult human'[PCR]), and, collectively *ro:m-a:. When
>>> they needed to designate an individual as a member of
>>> the *ro:ma:, they called him/her *ro:ma:-n(o). When they
>>> wanted to specify several *ro:ma:-n(o), they formed a
>>> plural *ro:ma:n-i. If there is anything linguistically
>>> objectionable to this theorized process, I would be glad
>>> to learn of it.

>> Dear linguists here, what do you think on this etymology?
>> Does it sound probable? Is it science or true fiction?

> It doesn't seem impossible - English place names like
> Worthing, which are basically clan names, do exist.

You're thinking of the one in Sussex, I take it, named after
the *Weorðingas 'people called after Weorð', and not the one
in Norfolk (from <worðign> 'an enclosure'). I'd go further
and say that such names are quite numerous. Perhaps an even
better example, though, is <Hitchin> (Herts.), from
<Hiccum>, dat. pl. of the folk-name <Hicce>.

> Pure speculation seems a better description.

Agreed.

Brian