[gothic-l] Boyar and related

[gazariah]

Greetings Francisc,

Of the Germanic etymologies for Russian words that Vladimir gives, I
would question /udel/.

This was earlier written with the vowel letter jat' /ud#l/. It
means "principality" as Vladimir says, but also "portion." (Even a
portion of barley--the use is attested.) When the feudal lord
dies, each son receives his own portion, a principality. Since we
have Slavic /d#liti/ "to divide," I see no reason for trying to make
this a Germanic borrowing. And I don't know how anyone would account
for the vowel changes needed to make Germanic /odal/ into
Slavic /ud#l/.

To insert at least some Gothic content, Slavic /d#liti/ ("divide") is
cognate with (not borrowed from) Gothic /dailjan/, German /teilen/,
English /deal/ (as in cards) and /dole/, which was Old
English /gedal/ (with long a) and meant "sharing," which bring us
back close to Russian /ud#l/.

Notice how the /ai/ in /dailjan/ (Lith. dailyti) corresponds with
jat' in /ud#l/. This is the regular development of IE diphthongs in
Slavic.

Etymologists have been worrying about /bojar/ for more than a hundred
years. The thing to keep in mind is that the oldest form we know
was /boljar-in/. A Turkic etymology is well possible, but personally
I believe this comes from Slavic /bolii/ "greater." The suffic /ar/
is very common and typical. The boljare were the "optimi viri"
(bigshots) of the state, a usage that is widespread and makes sense
anywhere.

On the other hand I don't see how /bo jarl/ would develop
to /boljar/ -- at least without using a blender. And what is /bo/ in
Norse, please? (It has to be Norse, like /jarl/, right?) I missed
that.

Regards,
Gazariah


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