--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
>
> > One objection raised by scholars to the connection between
> > <Cimbri> and <Himmerland> is that no variants *Chimbri or *Himbri
> > are known, casting doubt on a Gmc. /x/ in the ancient name. This
> > can be easily explained by the establishment of the form
> > <Kímbroi> already in Philemon's time. Unlike the Chatti,
> > Chamavi, Hermunduri, Harudes, etc., there was no novelty with the
> > Cimbrian tribe, and the old name stuck, no matter how the Germans
> > were pronouncing it in Caesar's time and later.
>
>
> Scholar shouldn't do that.
> Bent Jørgensen: Stednavneordbog
>
> 'Himmerland ... *1231 Himbersysel, 1268 Ymbersysul ...'
>
> Danish did then have a tendency to -mr- > -mbr- etc, so one might
> explain it that way, if needed, but Pliny places the Cimbrians in
> Jutland.
Here's a *very* tentative idea:
I have a suspicion the Germanic "heaven" is a loan
Wortschatz der Germanischen Spracheinheit:
'hemina, hemila m. Himmel, Zimmerdecke. g. himins m. Himmel;
an. himinn m. dass.;
as. heBan und himil m.,
afries. himel, himul,
ags. heofon m., engl. heaven;
ahd. himil m. Himmel, Zimmerdecke,
mnd. himel, nhd. Himmel.
Davon abgeleitet
ahd. himilizi, himilze,
mhd. himelze, himelz n. Zimmerdecke, Baldachin,
mnd. hemelte Zimmerdecke, ndl. gehemelte Gaumen (aus he-militia-).
Vgl. gr. kmélethron. (73:8)'
1) the odd suffix -et-,
2) the inlaut alternation w/m and
3) the auslaut alternation l/n (some kind of heteroclitic)
sets it apart from other Germanic words (except for *litel- and *mikel- also having property 3)
Now cf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengriism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian
and I propose (sort of):
tengri -> *c^iNri -> *k^imri
Voilà, Heaven, and Cimmerians/Cimbrians, assuming they were ultimately steppe nomads (and tengriists).
And since the PIE'ers were too, perhaps we should include
PIE dyw- "day; supreme god"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyeus
and why not
Etruscan tin "day; supreme god"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinia
and
Estonian taevas "sky"
Torsten