Re: Amber

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

>
>
> --- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > from Endre Bojtár:
> > Foreword to the Past,
> > A Cultural History of the Baltic People. p. 31-33
> . . .
> > Oh, so it really meant "resin"? Then perhaps this is
> > relevant:
> >
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/51978
> >
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/51970
> > Let's propose *gWentá-/gWantá(-r)- "resin". The poor Aestian
> > probably said that this was gelled resin, but that the
> > Aestian's didn't know from where it was washed onto their shore.
> > That earned him a
> >
> === message truncated ===
> fascinating account but
> What are the Estonian,

meri-vai/k, -gu, ie "sea resin".

Finnish and Saami forms?

That's what I have at hand.

> Given that amber supposedly shows up in the North Sea
> --are there any interesting Celtic words for amber?
> What are the Scandinavian words for amber?

Sw. bärnsten, Germ. Bernstein, from LGerm. bernste:n, 1st elmt. bernen
"burn", cf ON brennusteinn, ODa brænnæ sten "sulphur" (DEO)

Da. rav refers to the color, related to jærpe, ræv, (DEO)
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/47130 , ff
In other words, most likely pre-IE.

glass < PGmc. *glása-, ODa. glar (MLG gla:r, OE glæ:r "amber, resin")
< PGmc. glazá-, cf. Irish glass "green, grey, blue" related to glad
(German glatt "smooth"), glane "stare", glans (German Glanz
"splendour"), glide, glimre "gleam", gul "yellow" (DEO) Cf. Engl.
glare. In my opinion from PIE g^el-, derived with suffix -ax > -a:
(cf. Latin a-stems) > *glá:- (and Italian gelato) and cf. Latin
glacies "ice" (< *glak-), loaned into Germanic from Venetic.

> --Surely
> the Scandinavians and Baltic Germans would have been
> in contact with amber before receiving the Arabo-Latin
> form.


> The origin is explained thus in Wikipedia:
>
> The English word amber stems from the old Arabic word
> anbargris or ambergris and refers to an oily, perfumed
> substance secreted by the sperm whale. Middle English
> ambre > Old French ambre > Medieval Latin ambra (or
> ambar). It floats on water and is washed up on the
> beaches. Due to a confusion of terms (see: Abu Zaid al
> Hassan from Siraf & Sulaiman the Merchant (851),
> Silsilat-al-Tawarikh (travels in Asia), it became to
> be the name for fossil resin or tree sap, which is
> also found on beaches.
> . . ..
> The Greek name for amber was
> e:lektron (Electron) and was connected to the Sun God, one of
> whose titles was Elector or the Awakener.[1] . . .
> Heating amber will soften it and eventually it will
> burn, which is why in Germanic languages the word for
> amber is a literal translation of burn-Stone (In
> German it is Bernstein, in Dutch it is barnsteen
> etc.). . . .
> . . .
> Baltic amber has a very wide distribution, extending
> over a large part of northern Europe and occurring as
> far east as the Urals.
> . . .
> Although amber is found along the shores of a large
> part of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the great
> amber-producing country is the promontory of Sambia,
> now part of Russia. About 90% of the world's
> extractable amber is located in the Kaliningrad region
> of Russia on the Baltic Sea.[12]

The Veneti thrived on the amber trade. Therefore the Przeworsk and
Zarubincy grew towards and cut off (or 'taxed'?) the export route
between the Veneti and Aestians to the Mediterranean
http://tinyurl.com/3xpzn8
probably as France did with the Rhine after conquering Strasbourg
(the Netherlands was not part of the German largely fictitious empire
at the time, they would have been 'abroad', thus taxable).
At the time the last Veneti were forcibly moved they were reduced to
being a small and timid people (according to Henry of Livonia)


Torsten