From: stlatos
Message: 65842
Date: 2010-02-11
> > > > but since suoma-lainen means 'Finnlander' and suo-maa-lainen would mean 'fenlander', I'm not willing to accept coincidence.I'm not saying it could be from a non-Gmc word, but that since IE shows e/o/0 and +yo/ko/to/o+ and -n/nn- variants all with the same range of meaning the existence of any of them in Gmc at the stage when the word was formed is possible.
> > >
> > > Even if it's not, it doesn't mean those are correct etymologies: given "Finn" for northern barbarians in general (attested much before "Finland"), and a tribe "suomalaiset" who call fens "suo", there's a good motivation to then link the two, regardless of the actual etymologies.
> > >
> > > Correct me if I'm wrong here, but that we have no i-variants of "fen" also supports the conclusion that the association of fens and Finns is a folk etymology.
> >
> > It gives no ev. either way. There are many known variants for
> > 'fen'
>
> Not relevant as long as none of them have /i/.
>
> > and more in other IE branches,
>
> Not relevant as none of those has Grimm's Law.