[gothic-l] Re: Hairus in diminutive

[llama_nom]

Hi Troels,


> In 462 AD the personal name Herila was attested in Rome, and Herilo 
> was an Alamanic name. In the region where the Heruls settled in the 
> 5th century the names Herilungoburg and Herilungevelde were 
attested 
> in 832 AD - at a time when nobody knew that "ila" derived from a 
> diminutive suffix.


Well, I wouldn't want to speculate what "nobody knew" in 832.  Aside 
from Gothic, doesn't the suffix survive even now in especially 
Alemannic and Bavarian dialects of German?  But it's interesting to 
see these names with the <h>.  The town/stronghold and the field of 
the Herilings.



> In Widsith Herelingas was presented as the name of 
> a dynasty or the Harlungen Twins (probably Heruls according to 
> Wolfram). 



This connection is solid: Harlungs = Herelingas.  The line with 
Herelingas comes right before the line naming Emerca & Fridla, whose 
names appear in German form as the ill-fated nephews of Ermanric.  
The connection to the Eruli has been argued, but for a different 
opinion, see Chambers (Widsith, p. 31, n3): "The Harlungs cannot be 
derived from the Heruli as suggested by Grimm...  Harlung and Erl are 
too different linguistically to be easily identified, and there is no 
evidence demanding such an identification."

Aside from the initial [h] in Herelingas/Harlungen, there is the 
problem of the root vowel.  The German form suggests an etymology: 
Hari- > OE Here, rather than being related to the Gothic word for 
sword.  The name Herila you mention is unlikely to have been 
influenced by palatal mutation.

Not an etymological connection, but there are similarly named twin 
witch-kings in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar, the Haldingjar - and of 
course the famous Haddingjar in various Norse sources = the Vandal 
Astingi (*Hazdiggos), descended from the twins Raos & Rapt.



> These names indicate that the name "Herila" existed in the 
> surroundings of the Eastern Heruls around the 5th century. Though 
we 
> cannot be sure of anything, this name is very close to "*Hairu(i)
la", 
> but it is also very close to "Erila(R)" (450-550 AD) - actually it 
is 
> very close to be an attestation of a missing link at the right time 
> and place.
> 
> If we assume that "ErilaR" became "Iarl"/"Jarl" the "I"/"J" might 
> indicate that there also in "ErilaR" was a faint sound before 
> the "e"/"ae"/"ai". 



The change from short [e] to [ja] is a regular development in Norse, 
except where [u] follows in the second syllable, in which case the 
change is to [jö].



> The Heruls had no written language themselves, but their name was 
in 
> different times attested in Greek, Latin, Austrian Clerical Latin, 
> Old English and Old Norse.
> 
> This does not prove that it is the same name, but is there any 
reason 
> to expect more similarity in spelling in the different countries 
than 
> the above?
>    
> Troels


I guess the difficult thing is to establish a connection between 
Germanic names with initial <h> and the Germanic names/words 
without.  This is not a normal sound change.  Unfortunately, the 
Latin spellings with & without <h> can't really show which was the 
true name of the Heruli/Eruli.  The usual candidate is Eruli, but if 
this assumption is wrong, maybe the tribe and/or the individuals' 
names recorded by the Romans were based on the heru- 'sword' 
etymology you suggest.  Which is an interesting idea.  But in that 
case, the connection with the Herelingas/Harlungen looks doubtful 
(*Harilingoz?), as does the connection with eorl, jarl, erilaR.  Just 
my thought at the moment.  Unless there was some complicated 
borrowing back and forth between Roman and Germanic to account for 
all the anomalies?  But I haven't studied the history in any depth, 
so I could be missing something.

Llama Nom




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/wWMplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

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

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    gothic-l-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

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