From: Bhrihskwobhloukstroy
Message: 71670
Date: 2014-01-03
>
> T.L. Markey proposed an etymological connection between Germanic *baina-
> 'bone' and Latin _fi:nis_ 'border, boundary, limit' (Gmc. *baina- 'bone' and
> Other Monstrosities, NOWELE 2:93-107, 1983). Relying on a long
> metalinguistic preamble involving the phenomenology of perception, he argued
> that the inherited word for 'bone' was replaced by one for 'skeleton' when
> Germanic perceptual reinterpretation required new terminology. This term
> for 'skeleton' would originally have signified 'item defining limits of a
> pattern, limit of a configuration' vel sim. in agreement with Lat. _fi:nis_
> as 'delimitation, border'. According to Markey, _fi:nis_ was used "usually
> in reference to a tree, or an upright post that designated territorial
> limits" and can thus also be brought into connection with Old Norse _beinn_
> 'upright, straight, even, favorable'. This adjective is attested as a
> simplex only in North Germanic, but Markey noted the _Ba:ningas_ in Widsith
> and Latinized Frankish _Bainobaudes_.
>
> Apart from the twilight-zone metalinguistics underlying the presumed
> development 'skeleton' > 'bone', Markey's explanation falters with the Latin
> usage of _fi:nis_. A tree or upright post can mark only one point on a
> territorial border. The border itself either follows a natural geographic
> feature, such as a river or ridge-line, or it is artificially established by
> beating a path.
>
> In a paper submitted before he read Markey's, E.P. Hamp proposed a much
> more mundane motivation for Germanic replacement of the inherited word for
> 'bone' (German _Bein_, Old English _ba:n_; Slavic _kostI_, NOWELE 6:67-70,
> 1985). A thematized form of PIE *h2e/osth1- 'bone', Gmc. *asta-, would have
> fallen together with *h2ozdo- 'branch', also Gmc. *asta- (Gothic _asts_
> etc.). This would lead to the use of a disambiguating participle with the
> bones of butchered animals, *bH@... 'cut, lopped off' from the PIE root
> *bHeih2- 'to strike, beat' (whence Old Irish _ben(a)id_ 'beats' etc., IEW
> 117-8). The Gmc. phrase *bainaN astaN 'lopped off bone/branch' would simply
> lose its head noun, leaving *bainaN to signify 'bone'.
>
> In fact one expects the oxytone PIE participle *bHih2-nó- to lose its
> laryngeal by Dybo's Law in Germanic, yielding *bina- not *baina-.
>
> A. Bammesberger agreed with Markey's connection of Gmc. *baina- with ON
> _beinn_ and Lat. _fi:nis_ (Lateinisch _fi:nis_ und urgermanisch *baina-, HS
> 103:264-8, 1990). His paper is cited favorably by M. de Vaan (EDL s.v.
> _fi:nis_), with the PIE root in question the same as Hamp's. Implicit in de
> Vaan's treatment is the semantic development 'boundary marker beaten into
> the ground' > 'border' for _fi:nis_ (whose PIE protoform would need to be
> accented *bHíh2-ni- to get the long Latin vowel after Dybo's Law). For
> *baina-, it would be something like 'boundary marker beaten into the ground'
>> 'upright marker' > 'upright (member), (leg-)bone'.
>
> I believe the PIE root has been identified correctly, but the semantic side
> needs revision. Regarding _fi:nis_, I have already noted that a border is
> created artificially by beating a path. This explains the connection
> between Umbrian _tuder_ 'border' and Latin _tundere_ 'to beat'. For some
> reason de Vaan (s.v. _tundo:_) instead follows S. Schumacher's unlikely
> notion that _tuder_ means 'the place where two areas "hit" each other, that
> is, border on each other' (Die keltischen Primärverben, Innsbruck 2004, p.
> 645). On the other hand, against Walde-Hofmann and Ernout-Meillet, de Vaan
> regards the semantic connection between Lat. _callis_ 'rough track, path'
> and _callum_ 'hard substance, induration' as quite plausible. Beating a
> path hardens its surface. I propose that _fi:nis_ is semantically parallel
> to _callis_, and for some reason _fi:nis_ became specialized in denoting the
> path marking the territorial border of a political entity, like Umb.
> _tuder_.
>
> In Germanic, PIE *bHoih2-no- with either accent would yield *baina-. I
> propose that the semantic development was 'beaten hard on the surface' >
> 'hard-surfaced, case-hardened'. At this point *bainaN astaN disambiguated
> 'bone' from 'branch', since the deep interior of a bone contains soft spongy
> marrow, while the exterior is hard. While *bainaN eventually lost its head
> noun and became the neuter 'bone' as in Hamp's scenario, the adjective
> *baina- developed from 'hard-surfaced' to simply 'hard, unyielding'. The
> simplex is unattested in Gothic, but the compound _bainabagms_ 'cornel tree'
> illustrates the sense, for the cornel or dogwood has hard wood, difficult to
> use. In North (and probably West) Germanic, the adjective acquired a
> morally positive sense suitable for proper names, 'unyielding, steadfast,
> upright, straight, even'.
>
> Douglas G. Kilday
>
>