Re: *ka/unt- etc, new conquests

> Koryakova, Epimakhov
> The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages
> pp. 213-214
> 'Social Organizations of Eurasian Nomads
> ...
> The military-potestal relations were in competence with the organization, usually called a "tribe." The tribe regulated contact with other tribes, to resolve political and military problems. The tribe could be of dual (left and right "wings") or triple (left and right wings plus a center), and was militarily organized by the decimal structure (i.e., units of thousands, hundred, and tens with a hierarchy of leaders) (Taskin 1989). In peacetime, the dispersed character of the nomadic society did not require a great central power thus the power of the chiefs was not very significant, but in wartime, a central power was necessary. The amazing ability of nomads to create large armies in case of military danger or political contests is well known. A leader's personality should not be underestimated in the process of sociopolitical consolidation of nomadic societies. The history of the Hsiung-nu tribes is a good example. Cribb (1991: 55) stresses the territorial aspect of a tribe: "The tribe constitutes the operational unit through which units of population are matched to units of territory."
> '
>
> Like I said ;-)
> The "wing" aspect of *ka/unt-, the "people/tribe" aspect of it, the decimal system (of Germanic) intertwined with it.

> At least we now know what kind of society the *ka/unt- root is from. Now why did Celts etc also use that organization (Tricassi etc)?
>
> Torsten

To add some more fuel for the fire, I notice you have not brought up here previously the Finnish region of Satakunta, ie. "hundred-_kunta_", which is incidentally also supposedly the region of highest prevalence of haplogroup I1.

Check out this guy too:
http://fidna.info/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3

I think he's off the mark with Rauma however; it's an old loan from *strauma "stream" (and not limited to the town's name). I don't see how *hvein > kven or, for that matter, vana- > väinä work either (vana- > vana however seems to fit just fine). Didn't read all 35 pages either. Ask BTW if you'd like Finnish translations of any particular set.

However *kunta appears to go back to Proto-Uralic, effectivly ruling out European substrate languages. But it occurs to me that Proto-Samic has the sound change *u > *o (while Proto-Finnic doesn't), and you kno what Germanic speakers would make of that. Not extensible to central Europe either, however.

Also the distinction between Uralic *kunta "group, to hunt", "to hunt", *kan-ta "to carry" and *kënta "stump, base" is by all evidence one inherited from PU; I see no links between the three, other than that they have the same consonants. And I have no idea what you are getting at with the other roots with *ka- you list in msg #62525.

John Vertical