Re: Attila, Etzel (was: Alanic horseman)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tolgs001" <george_st@...> wrote:

>
> [...]
> If -ila (or -illa, as modern Turks spell it) was a diminutival

suffix.

> But what if Attila did not have the meaning ata "father" + -ila?

It's not Turkic ata, it's Gothic atta + ila.

> What
> if it had to do (e.g. as a hypothesis) with Atil, Itil,

Etil "Volga"?

> (Or a similar river.) Or a third (unknown) meaning.

Do we have examples of hydronym > anthroponym? If I remember right,
some rivers could be personified, e.g. Don and Danube in Slavic
folklore. And, in the late USSR, there was a car called "Volga" :)

> NB: various pronuciations/spellings in early texts: Ethele, Etzel
> (including the oldest Hungarian medieval chronicles as well as the
> German 'Niebelungenlied').

Etzel < OHG Ezzilo (i-umlaut and the 2nd shift) < Go. Attila.