Re: Origin of *marko- Margus murg ma'rgas amurg

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
>
> --- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > Come to think about it, Marius' proposal might even be possible.
> > The geminate -nn- in -manni and the connection with the ancestor
> > Mannus means the Marcomanni were of the same kind as eg. the
> > Chatti, ie. a displaced NWBlock people. But that means we should
> > not expect k -> x -> h in the name, cf Chatti, in the first
> > sources called Catti (and remember that this is the mark of the
> > NWBlock, that it had no Grimm-shift). So in such a language we
> > would have *marko- "horse". That also fits with Caesar's
> > description that the Germani used a very new tactic of pairing men
> > of infantry and of cavalry in pairs (he doesn't specifically
> > single out the Marcomanni), so "horsemen" would make sense.
>
> ****GK: And the "Suebi" would be the infantrymen
> (:=)))?? ****

No, the whole thing would be a Marcomanni regimen which Ariovistus
might have let extend to the other peoples of his army.

Sorry to have been so disloyal to you in this feud ;-) ,
but with the changes I propose it is possible. Marius' proposal, as it
stands, won't fly, it would lead to a Germanic language with both
*marxa- "horse" and *marko- "horse"; such a state wouldn't last long.


Torsten