Re: Alanic horseman

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Cristian Mocanu" <cristixav@...>
wrote:

>
> "Attila" as "little father" at least in Gothic, seems to me to

pose no

> problems:
> -Wulfila has "ATTA unsar"="Our Father..."
> - "-ila" as a diminutival suffix couldn't be better attested, esp.

in

> personal names: Totila="little dead man", Wulfila="little wolf"

etc.

> "Ata"=father is present throughout the Turkic spectrum, but we

know that

> such words usually originate in children's language.
> Of course,we have no way of knowing if the Huns themselves

actually called

> him that.
> Cristian

Of course they did. Most influential of them were East Germanic or
at least could speak East Germanic. As to commoners of different
origins, they did probably adapt it to their particular idiom. I
wonder what was the proto-Slavic form? Something like *otIlI? Which
would eventually yield Polish *ociel and Russian *otel', if I don't
mistake...