From: alexandru_mg3
Message: 52281
Date: 2008-02-04
>What kind of cover? ...like a 'bedspread' see Albanian shtroj& too..
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > --- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@> wrote:
> >
> > > 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
> >
> > ****GK: Jordanes' text is not easy by any means. He is
> > describing a series of ritual acts, allegedly
> > performed by Huns only. He mentions (1)a silk tent on
> > a plain, where Attila's body lay in state. He then
> > mentions (2)a tumulus, which is NOT identical to the
> > spot where Attila was eventually secretly buried.He
> > finally mentions (3)the burial spot, Attila's three
> > coffins (what that means I don't know), and various
> > objects buried with the warlord. Now the "strava"
> > ritual is connected with (2). The tumulus could have
> > been some commemorative kurgan, either created for the
> > occasion, or already there, and having royal/sacral
> > connotation. We don't really know. What seems
> > important to determine with respect to the "strava"
> > ritual is the meaning of Jordanes' "commessatio
> > ingens", which Mierow has translated as "intense
> > revelling". What does "commessatio" actually mean? I
> > have not found it in my Oxford Dictionary of Classical
> > Latin, nor in my admittedly incomplete Dictionary of
> > mediaeval Latin. But one on-line dictionary defines it
> > as "eating together",i.e. we are back to some sort of
> > wake or ritual common feast around a tumulus
> > symbolizing the resting place of the dead monarch...
> > What kind of "cover" (Gothic or Romance) could be
> > involved? I've never heard of such a ritual. But a
> > feast is another matter,were it not for the linguistic
> > difficulties. Jordanes, a Romanized Goth was writing
> > in 552, perhaps quoting Cassiodorus,perhaps someone
> > else, perhaps speaking for himself. Might Torsten's
> > query ("how do we know what transpired in a Gothic
> > borrowing from Slavic?") provide an answer? "Cover"
> > just doesn't seem to cut it, somehow, funeral pyre or
> > whatever (or piles of swords on the mound)...Finally,
> > is there any way "strava" could refer to some Turkic
> > root? Somehow I doubt that too.****
> >
>
>
> Albanian shtrov& 'covered' < PAlb/Dacian? stra:-wa 'covered'
>
> Do you think that you will find a match More clear than this?
>
> I don't.
>
> Marius
>