Re: Reindeer domestication : two origins

From: Rick McCallister
Message: 62165
Date: 2008-12-19

--- On Thu, 12/18/08, Trond Engen <trond.engen@...> wrote:

> From: Trond Engen <trond.engen@...>
> Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Reindeer domestication : two origins
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 7:26 PM
> Piotr Gasiorowski:
>
> > On 2008-12-15 22:29, Trond Engen wrote:
> >
> >> Another take: There's also an adjective (and a
> well established pun)
> >> Da. + Sw. <ren>, No. <rein>
> "clean" < ON <hreinn> < *xraini-,
> >> derived from the o-grade of IE *kr-ey-
> "separate, choose". The
> >> animal name could be "the chosen",
> either directly from the
> >> adjective or by back-formation from the compound
> <hreindýri>. It
> >> might have denoted the animal as an object of
> trade, after how
> >> herds were rounded up and animals singled out to
> be sold or
> >> slaughtered. Or, noting <-dýri> with a
> final i as opposed to <dýr>
> >> "animal", perhaps it originally meant
> "single animal in the herd" at
> >> a time when <dýr> was still a collective.
> >
> > A good point. The root is actually something like
> *kreh1(i)-/*krih1-,
> > well-known for its occurrence in *krih1-trom
> 'sieve' (Lat. cri:brum,
> > OIr. críathar. OE hri:dder). I was aware of the
> homonymy of 'clean'
> > and 'reindeer' but couldn't think of a way
> to connect them. See also
> > Gk. krí:no: 'pick out, choose, decide' from
> the same root.
>
> A tiny piece of evidence: I gather from Sammalahti's
> The Saami Languages that there's a noun North Saami
> <reaidnu>, South Saami <reajnoe>
> "herding". If I read him correctly the
> corresponding verb is derived from the noun. He doesn't
> discuss its etymology -- not anywhere I find it, anyway --
> but supposing a development parallel to NS <geaidnu>
> "road" (< FS *kejno) it should be from FS
> *rejno-. FS *r- is regular from Gmc. *Cr-.
>
> Thus, there might have been a Germanic *xrai-no-
> "separating or keeping herds apart (vel. sim.)".
>
> But it's hardly the scientific breakthrough of the
> century. For all I know the word might have been borrowed
> directly from the animal name at a later stage, although the
> semantics of that would seem awkward without some
> derivation. Anybody knowledgeable in Finno-Saamic?
>

If, as I suspect, other deer are as amenable to herding as cats, then a root based on herding would be logical. US Elk or Wapiti (the same as European Red Deer?) and Virginia (White-Tailed Deer) deer are solitary, although Mule Deer (Black-Tailed Deer) do travel in herds (at least I've seen them in herds many times).