RE : [tied] Re: North of the Somme

> Wikipedia interprets the Swedish title as "King of the
> Swedes, Geats and Wends" and explains that the Geats
> are the people of Götaland. But the Swedish title in
> Latin states "Vandalorum et Gothorum" and that's the
> conflation I'm referring to.

This ought to settle it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Wends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Goths

> Wik gets into the Geat-Goth-Jute argument, as well as
> WHO was on Gotland --were they Goths or Geats?

If it's a substrate word, the words might be ultimately identical, and
that might have meant as much as 'injuns'.

> This brings up the argument of whether maybe E Gmc
> spread out of present-day SE Sweden from what was the
> N end of a Gmc dialect chain and crossed the Baltic,
> thus severing its connecion with said dialect chain.
> if so, then the Geats would have been the descendants
> of those who stayed and continued speaking part of
> that dialect chain, while the Goths et al founded E
> Gmc

Runic is close to Proto-Germanic. That means it is part of an
expansion that happened then, in the few centuries around the
beginning of our era. So I'd say your scenario is impossible. Either
the émigrés changed their language in Sciri/Bastarnae territory, or
the population of Scandinavia changed its language, under duress,
around 1 CE, I think.

> And perhaps the term Wend for the Slavs came into use
> when they moved into former Vandal territory

That's possible.

> --although I don't know if Vandal has the same
> etymology: I've seen *wen- "beloved" for Wend and
> "wander" for Vandal (in history books, so really
> non-lx)

The Vandals are usually associated with the Danish landscape of
Vendsyssel, ODa. approx. Wendlæ syssel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendsyssel
map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendsyssel-Thy
Archaeologically it has connections to the area around the mouth of
the Odra river.


Torsten