--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "gknysh" <gknysh@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Any chance the terms "Argaragantes" (incl. variants) and
> > > "Limigantes" could be understood as latinized versions of Gothic
> > > plurals "argaragans" and "limigans" (with the first portion
> > > being of Iranic provenance, as explained by Francesco Brighenti
> > > in message 64571) ? (I'm looking at various texts dealing with
> > > Danubian area events in the 4th century).
> > >
> >
> > Unlikely. -ans is the m.pl.acc. ending, not nom. I don't think
> > there are any examples of Latin -antes from Germanic *-ans.
>
> GK: What about this example of "weak declension" nominative
> plural? Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_language /at
> "guma"/ I was imagining a Roman hearing a Goth lamely describing the
> Limigantes as "limigans" and 'correcting" this to Limigantes (since
> Limigans would sound like a singular form).
The Germanic weak declension corresponds to the Latin 3rd declension n-stems, for the same cases of the Latin cognate of guma:
sg. homo, hominem, hominis, homini
pl. homines, homines, hominum, hominis
I think that would be the solution for someone translating between the two languages.
****GK: The issue is complicated by the status of the word [not that of the guma cognate] assumed to be rendered in Gothicized Roman ("limigans") i.e. whether it would involve a weak or strong declension. I have no idea other than my ad hoc imagination which is worth about as much as such are... But perhaps one should forget Gothic altogether, and try for some Iranic form which would translate as "Limigantes".*****