Re: PS Emphatics

On 2008-02-04 23:17, george knysh wrote:

> 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.

The main problem is the rather general meaning of *streu- in Germanic.
Consequently, *strawo: could mean anything that can be laid out, strewn,
piled up, etc. (even 'straw', which comes from the same source). It
_could_ be a feast (as the 'laying out' of food).

> 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?

In 552 the time of yer loss was still centuries ahead. If early East
Germanic loans in Slavic (such as *kUneNdzI <-- *kuninga-) have *U for
Gothic *u, it seems the reverse should be true as well. Gothic nouns,
native or borrowed, had initial stress, and I don't think something like
*soNtrava or *sUtrava would have been treated differently whatever the
Slavic accentual pattern. Linguists generally reject the idea that
<straua> is a Slavic word. The equation just looks hopelesly anachronistic.

> "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.****

So do I, but then we don't even know if the Huns were linguistically
Turkic at any time. We _do_ know, however, that Gothic was one of the
main languages among the upper classes of the Hunnish empire.

Piotr