Re: PS Emphatics

From: george knysh
Message: 52291
Date: 2008-02-04

--- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> 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.

****GK: You don't find Maenchen-Helfen's analyses of
Hunnish names relevant? He found piles of Turkic roots
(also some Iranic ones), and he was not a kook. Have
his views been convincingly superseded? Not that that
helps with "strava"****

We _do_ know, however, that
> Gothic was one of the
> main languages among the upper classes of the
> Hunnish empire.

****GK: Very true. Right after Hunnish. That's why
your statement above might work. Also "covered with
feasting people" (unless that is too imaginative
(:=))****

P.S. I take it that if "strava" was a Gothic term it
would not have been borrowed into any Slavic dialect
and contemporary Slavic "strava" is purely
coincidental?
>
> Piotr
>
>
>



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