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

[Michael Erwin]

A few sketchy hypotheses; I'm not ready to argue for or against  
these, but I'd like to know what others make of these.

(1) Got. 'reiks' doesn't come (directly) from Lat. 'rex.'

(2) Got. 'reiks' comes from Clt. 'rix.'

(3) Eng. 'king' doesn't come (at all) from Greek.

(4) Eng. 'king' comes from Eng. 'kin.'

(5) Got. 'kindins' comes from Got. 'kuni.'

(6) Got. '*kunig--' would come from Got. 'kuni' as well. (what should  
the Gothic ending be?)

(7) Got. 'thiudans' comes from Got. 'thiuda.'

(8) The analogy kindins : kuni :: thiudans : thiuda is older and  
meanings probably shifted.

(9) The analogy *kunigs : kuni :: thiudans : thiuda is younger and  
probably holds.

(10) Both kindins and *kunigs derive from the same word using older  
and newer word-formation rules. Because the vowels diverge in kindins  
vs. kuni I assume kindins is older. Because *kunigs is attested in  
the other Germanic languages it is still very old - probably Common- 
Germanic. Alternatively, one of kindins and *kunigs might have been  
borrowed from another Germanic language, or *kunigs might have been  
unknown in Gothic.


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