Re: Germani

From: Rick McCallister
Message: 67967
Date: 2011-08-07




From: stlatos <stlatos@...>
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 6, 2011 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Germani

 


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>

> W dniu 2011-08-05 15:37, Torsten pisze:
>
> > Although this etymon has been classed as "absurd",5
> > it has also found supporters among prominent scholars, e. g. Below,
> > Holtzmann, Laistner, Hartmann, Birt,6 Gudeman7 and Collinder.

> Just for the record, I, for one, take the Latin theory seriously and
> can't see what should be so "absurd" about it. My personal guess is that
> _Germa:nus_ is simply a Latin rendering of Germanic *swe:Baz, meaning
> roughly 'of the same ancestral stock'.

The presence of * ermana- \ irmina- \ irmuna- and the names Herminones, Hermunduri \ Hermanduri (showing the same u\i\a alt.), make older Gmc * xermana- \ xirmina- \ xirmuna- likely ( < x() = h() , as most PIE words started w C not V), with * xermana- >> Germa:no- , possibly including the influence of folk etymology.

***R Yes, I agree that folk etymology often informs names. Think of how people choose names for their children, usually without knowing what they mean. In the US, they generally come from soap operas, I don't know about the rest of the world.