Re: Scandinavia and the Germanic tribes such as Goths, Vandals, Angl

> Here's the picture:
> 1) If we accept Piotr et al.'s etymology of Goths as derived from
> *gheud- we still have all the loose ends for Jute, so we'll have to
> assume at least one substrate word to accomodate that.
> 2) Since we have now posited one substrate word already, it's
> natural to see if we can join it with other words, for reasons of
> economy of the resulting theory. Gaut- etc fits the bill.
> 3) We now have a motive for the Goths to emigrate from Scandinavia,
> we have a reason why Jutland was once called Reidgotaland (we don't
> have to assume as is standard that Snorri was making up stories),
> we have a reason why the Øresund is called called the Jute stream
> in Finnish (the Jutes played no particular role in the Danish
> crusades in Estonia, Denmark was run from Sjælland under the
> Valdemars, the name must be earlier, phonetically updated by a loan
> from Swedish who referred to the Danish enemies as Jutar, bur the
> Øresund has never been called anything with Jute in Swedish).
> 4) The Goth have never distinguished themselves as casters of
> anything.

de Vries' Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch informs me (entry ey
"insel") that Gotland in Finnish is 'Voijonmaa, richtiger Vuojanmaa'
and 'eig. Insel-land'. IIRC Finnish -j- < *-ð- and -uo- < *-o:-, so
Got- = Wo:ð- (more accurately, both are from *(a)n,W-at-, "having to
do with water") and the Goths are islanders?


Torsten