On 2008-02-03 20:46, george knysh wrote:
> The favourite interpretation of "strava" is that it refers to some
> sort of foodfest (indeed some linguists thought the word was Slavic).
> I wonder. The activities described by Jordanes need not indicate a
> meal, but something else entirely. Any chance that this ordanes
> "strava" is related to stra:va above?
Slavic *sU-trava 'meal' can be ruled out definitely. The yers were
certainly full vowels in the 5th century and would not have been dropped
by any foreign borrowers.
It can't be related to any of those *str(a)iB- words just discussed,
since PGmc. *i, *ei, or *ai wouldn't be reflected as anything resembling
"a" in Gothic. The word might be Hunnish (if "Hunnish" means anything in
linguistic terms), but perhaps the most reasonable etymology of <straua>
is a Gothic one, referring to the verb <straujan> 'strew, cover' (Lat.
struo: is from the same root). What they covered the tumulus with is
anyone's guess, any kind of ceremonial decoration would fit the bill;
some interpreters suggest that it was a funeral pyre.
Piotr