Was the word "kunig/kunigas/kunigur" a gothic word?

[michelsauvant]

Hi,
Many Thanks,
After your 1st mail, I can explain the mutation from your "Kunigga" 
to "Canigo" after more than 4 centuries and at that time in 
visigothic Septimania.
I will read your other mails and made a more complete answer 
tomorrow.
Best Regards
Michel    


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ualarauans" <ualarauans at ...> wrote:
>
> Hi Michel and Ingemar
> 
> The Gothic form of the word is reconstructed as *kuniggs (read 
> [kunings] in the Wulfilan-style orthography). Of its existence in 
> Gothic we may probably conclude from a series of loanwords into 
East-
> European languages. Here we have Finnish and Estonian kuningas
> "king", which preserve best the Proto-Germanic sound shape 
> (*kuningaz, but perhaps an earlier Gothic form could be *kuningas 
as 
> well), then Lithuanian kunigas and Lettish kungs "lord", "master", 
> finally Old Church Slavonic kÚnędzÜ 
[kunendzi] "king",then "prince",
> "duke" (as an aristocratic title). The Finns and the Balts could 
> have borrowed it directly from the Northland, but in the case of 
the 
> Slavs we probably have to assume a Gothic contribution, because 
> apparently they were the first speakers of a Germanic idiom whom 
the 
> Slavs contacted.
> 
> The word reiks in the Bible translates Greek ARCWN, which 
> conventionally corresponded to Latin dux in the bilingual practice 
> of the late Empire, and we meet both rex and dux used with 
reference 
> to Germanic tribal chieftains ("kings") in contemporary sources. 
Can 
> it bear some weight for the topic? And, of course, reiks could 
> easily acquire folk-etymological links to rex after the Goths 
> entered the Roman domain, as Ingemar pointed out. But it was 
hardly 
> a "later invention by influence from the Roman realm". The word is 
> usually considered as a Celtic loan into PG, several centuries 
> before the start of the Gothic wars, maybe. And the Getica cannot 
> tell us which particular Gothic king was named what in Gothic, 
> because it was written in Latin and, whenever the author was 
dealing 
> with thiudans, *kuniggs or reiks, he had a little choice between 
rex 
> and dux, which is exactly what we see there.
> 
> If we look into the Wulfila's translation, we may find out that 
> reiks, when used adjectively, could have grades of comparison. 
That 
> is, a person could be more or less `reiks' as compared to others. 
Mc 
> 3:22 thamma reikistin unhulthono, for Greek TW ARCONTI TWN 
> DAIMONIWN, literally "to the most `reiks' of demons". Similarly 
Joh. 
> 18:22 thamma reikistin gudjin, TW ARCIEREI. Could there be a 
> Standard Gothic phrase like *thamma reikistin thiudana "to the 
> most `reiks' of kings", used with reference to the Roman emperor, 
> maybe, as distinguished from all the kings of the Barbarians? The 
> Ostrogoths could have used it for Attila as well. At least we know 
> from the Calendar that thiudans could be occasionally used 
> for "emperor" (The 3rd of November, a day of Kustanteinus 
thiudanis).
> 
> As for possibility of deriving Canigo from *Kuniggahauhei (the 
most 
> plausible Gothic reconstruction, meaning "King's height" and 
> pronounced [kuningahauhi:], with a Visigothic diphthong, I am 
rather 
> skeptical. You cannot explain (can you?) why it's [a] instead of 
[u] 
> or [o] in the first syllable, which [u] > [a] is quite an 
impossible 
> change for all I know. The suffix Gothic –igg- [ing] was adopted as
> -engo in Ibero-Romance, cf. Spanish abolengo, realengo (Rom. real 
+ 
> Go. –ing-). Its form –ig- which we find in today's Koenig is 
Middle 
> or even Early New High German. In OHG times they still said 
kuning, 
> and there is no evidence to suggest the loss of the nasal in 
Gothic. 
> Being no expert in Romance philology I'd suggest our hypothetical 
> *Kuniggahauhei becoming smth like Conengoya today. Couldn't Canigo 
> be connected with Lat. canis "dog"?
> 
> Ualarauans
>






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