Gothic Year/Season Words

[akoddsson]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> My understanding was that Gothic 'athana' meant 'year.'
> 
> 'Juleis' (?) would be a two-month season around November-December, 

This is the reconstructed meaning via the Norse word y:lir (<Proto-
Norse *jiulijaz), which means just that. Yule itself would, however, 
be *jiula, neut.pl., in Gothic (compare Norse jo:l, Gutnish jaul - 
both neut.pl., a-stem). Juileis is found, of course, on the Gothic 
calender fragment, where its meaning is less than obvious, while at 
the same time seemingly refering to a period of time/month(s). 
 
> and 'wintrus' would (presumably) be a(nother) two-month season 
around January-February, although the part can refer to the whole (as 
in modern English: '# winters old').

Phrases like 'X winters old' (counting age in winters/years) are very 
typically Norse. Indeed, they seem to have been universal there. One 
could likely reconstruct this for Gothic, as well, if parallels are 
not already found in writing (Wulfila), in which case we should look 
to these first. However, I do not imagine that wintrus can mean a two-
month period; rather, it would refer to a longer period. In Norse, 
from which the Gothic-year/year-terminology is usually reconstructed. 
winter is one half of the year (6 months), technically speaking (mid- 
Oktober- mid-April), the other half being summer (sumar). There are a 
variety of terms for autumn/fall and spring, but the basic division 
was still winter-summer (50/50). The old tradition of telling age in 
winters would also, it seem, reflect this tradition. 

 > I figured that 'jer,' like 'wintrus,' had referred to one season 
and (by extension) to the year, and had later displaced 'athana.'

Well, year could also mean 'crops/wealth/produce(of the land)' in 
Norse, as well as being a designation equivalent to ME 'year'. This 
meaning must be ancient, as the Norse were required by law in heathen 
times to sacrifice for 'good year' at fixed annual assemblies. Here 
the meaning seems to be 'harvest/produce of the land', rather than a 
fixed period of time. Thus, it would seem that the word could have  
different, but related, meanings. I suspect that this would also hold 
true for the Gothic term 'je:r'. 

Regards,
Konrad






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