[gothic-l] Re: Balkan

[Francisc Czobor]

Hello, Nenad

I apologize for my late answer to some of your questions, but I was
waiting for other listmembers' comments on these issues.

--- In gothic-l at y..., "Nenad Mitovski" <mitovski at e...> wrote:
> ...
>         Looking through Gothic dictionaries, I've found some very
interesting
> interactions with Southern-Slavic languages known to me and it could
be an
> interesting subject.

Of course that there are interactions of Gothic with Slavic generally,
not only with South-Slavic.
Almost all that we know about Gothic is from the Silver Bible. It
seems indeed that Wulfila wrote it in Moesia (between the Danube and
Balkan Mountains, on the territory of today's Bulgaria), but this was
in the 4th century, when no Slavs were in that region yet.
There are many common Slavic words of Germanic origin, most of them
being surely or most probably from Gothic. In some cases, the Gothic
origin is indicated by the occurence of long [e], that became long [a]
in other Germanic languages, for instance:
O.Slav. meci "sword" < Goth. mekeis "sword"
O.Slav. leku "remedy", leci- "to heal" < Goth. lekeis "healer,
physician"
(Sorry, I have not the diacritics available to spell correctly the
Common Slavic/Old Slavic words!)
Gothic served also as intermediary for Greek and Latin loanwords into
Slavic, for instance:
O.Slav. kotilu "kettle, bucket" < Goth. katils < Lat. catelllus
(diminutive of catinus)
O.Slav. osilu "donkey" < Goth. asilus < Lat. asellus (diminutive of
asinus)
O.Slav. kupiti "to buy" < Goth. kaupon "to trade, to traffic" < Lat.
caupo "wine merchant"
Such Gothic words are to be found in all Slavic languages and are due
to the interaction between the Goths and the Slavs (before their
migration) on the territory of todays Ukraina, especially when the
Slavs were part of Ermanaric's Gothic empire.
On the other hand, some Slavic words can be found in Gothic:
plats "piece of cloth, patch" < O.Slav. platu
plinsjan "to dance" < O.Slav. plesati
(these words are surely borrowed by Gothic from Slavic, and not
vice-versa, because they have the "p", an uncommon sound in Gothic,
that appears mostly in loanwords).

>         What is the connection between Gothic word "slawan" with the
name of
> Slavs?

A very smart question. "Slawan" means in Gothic "to be silent, to be
still". This reminds me the name given by the Slavs to the Germans:
Russian "nemec" and related words in other Slavic languages, being
derived from O.Slav. nemu "dumb". Indeed, someone can be regarded as
silent or dumb by people speaking another language.
But as far as I know, the name of Slavs comes from their own
designation: Slovene, being derived from slovo "word". The early
Slavic tribes did not form a political unity, but spoke the same
language, so they could understand each other through words (opposed
to the Germans, who were "dumb" from the point of view of the
Slavs...)
The Old Germanic peoples called the Slavs generally as "Venethi" or
"Venedi" (latinized forms; cf. OHG winid-), and it seems that this
term was used also by the Goths (see Jordanes: Getica V)

>         Did Goths and Slavs mix?
>

I think that they mixed.

Francisc


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck
Monitoring Service trial
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Gi0tnD/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/wWMplB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/