Re: Germani

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

>
> W dniu 2011-08-07 02:29, stlatos pisze:
>
> > 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.
>
> An unetymological <h-> is unprecedented in (non-Latinised) Germanic, but
> fairly well attested in Classical Latin itself (<humerus>, <humidus>,
> <ahenus>),

I never said it was unetymological.

> not to mention the early loss of /h/ in colloquial/rustic
> Latin and the occasional confusion of initial /V-/ and /hV-/ in
> inscriptional Latin even before the end of the Republic. As opposed to
> Latinised <Hermanaricus>, we only have OE Eormenric, ON Jörmunrekr;
> there is no vernacular Germanic version with initial /h-/. That, as well
> as the long /a:/ in the medial syllable, militates against connecting
> <Germa:nus> with *ermVna-.

I said "influence of folk etymology".


OE heorl \ eorl corr. to L Heruli , so that is one with ev., and ev. that the version w/out h- became much more common. The giants Ymir , Hymir , and Gymir show the variation.