> Norse was used most about 900 years AFTER
> Herman Cerusci slaughtered Varius'
> Legions, so I don't think there's a problem
> with any Old Norse words with
> Latin origins. It's not like Snorri introduced
> Latin to the Scandinavians
> all by himself.

I don't think it's sustainable to argue a
significant Latin source in Norse: foreign words
don't wander into a language merely because
certain speakers know the foreign language - to
really become part of the home language, the
foreign words must enjoy *usage*.

And already comparing the German dialects (not to
mention comparing German to Scandinavian
languages) one can see that Latin has come into
German through the Roman occupation: Latin-origin
words in the "High" German (spoken in areas once
under Roman occupation) are not represented in
the "low" German (spoken in areas the Romans
never occupied).

A good example of this is the High German word
"Fenster" ("Window" - from Latin Fenestre). The
Romans brought the occupied Germans the concept
of a hole in the midst of the wall that could be
opened and closed, as opposed to a permanent hole
at the top of buildings as they had originally
built. Thus the term "Fenster" came into the
German language through reference to this
innovation. In northern Germany, however, the
term for window has always been "Windauge"
(wind-eye or wind-hole) because the occupation
never brought the Latin term into use.

A good example of this in German/Scandinavian
comparison is the German word "Tisch" (Table -
from Latin "Diskus"). The Romans brought the
concept of a round table at which the food could
be arranged equidistan from all those seated,
rather than the rectangular table commonly used.
So the word came into the German language through
reference to this innovation. In Scandinavia,
however, the term for table has allways been
related to the term "Bord" (Board), because Roman
occupation never brought the Latin term into use.

"Learned" men in both northern Germany and
Scandinavia certain all knew the Latin terms for
a round table and a window; however, they were
not able to introduce them to their native
languages.

So, to argue that the Latin term for "Beard"
somehow became used in Norse, it would be
necessary to identify (a) intensive exposure to a
latin or romance language such as occupation and
(b) a significant difference (ie a special kind
of beard that the latin or romance speakers made
popular among the Norse) that would have been
worth making reference to.

The only long-shot for this that occurs to me is
that the Norse settling Normandy used the romance
term to refer to a specific kind of beard common
to the natives, and that this term was taken over
before the Normans dropped Norse usage
completely. However, this is so unlikely it's not
worth pursuing.

To argue that both languages carried a similar
term for "beard" from the original IndoEuropean,
it would be necessary to demonstrate that the
term were used in other circumstances in Norse.
As the word used in other circumstances is
"skegg", it is clear that Norse and Latin
developed their respective words for "beard" from
different sources (possibly still both
IndoEuropean: the Germanic and Latin words for
"knowledge", for instance, both come from
IndoEuropean - but from completely different
IndoEuropean source words. The IndoEuropean used
two different terms for types of "knowing" they
perceived to be different, one being handed down
to the Germanic and one to the romance
languages).



=====
Kindest Regards,
- DeepStream
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