Contemporary language. [Database]

[ualarauans]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> I agree. I suggest that (in addition to the household words, etc.) we
> should come up with word-lists for linguistics and archaeology. The
> former has already started with case names.
> 
> For the latter, what are suitable Gothic renderings of:
>
> - Culture
> - [A specific archaeological] culture

I know there will be better variants made up from native words, but 
what if we use *kultura F.-o and arkaiulaugikeina (-laugiska) kultura 
respectively? We have to decide something about this ending –ikeins 
vs. –isks. The former is attested as a rendering of Greek –IKOS, the 
latter is as modern Germanic languages (except English I guess) have 
it. Or if the policy is that NO foreign words may exist in revived 
Gothic, then you don't need it of course. But then I can hardly 
imagine how the language is to be used at all.

As a variant I'd suggest huzdastaþs, lit. "treasure place" for 
archaeological site, metaphorically. Airþahuzd for "archaeological 
find".

> - Ecology

Wkaulaugia? Garda-leisei/-kunþi? Garda-waldains? And what will 
be "ecologist" and "ecological"? Actually, what is (if there is) a 
public consensus on "nature"? You could form something from it.

> - Technology

Taiknulaugia as an abstract noun. For a concrete device we'd need 
something different.

> - Artifact

I was thinking over it since I made a translation of the articles' 
titles and I've come to *handu-waurstw N.-a constructed from attested 
components and meaning literally "a hand-made item".

> - Settlement

Saliþwa? *Salistaþs "place of dwelling"?

> - Gravegoods

*Hlaiwahuzda pl.?

> - Oksywie
> - Przeworsk
> - Weilbark
> - Chernyakhov
> - Sintana de Mures

If Polish names have German equivalents like Wielbark/Willenberg it's 
relatively easy to Gothicize them: Wiljabairg(s). What would you say 
seeing a "monster" like this: Wiljabairgis Arkaiulaugikeina Kultura? 
At least it looks like a living European language, not a puristic 
abstraction.

If no German(ic) equivalent is found, then there are two ways that we 
can take: either translate the name literally according to its meaning 
in the given language or try to render its phonetics with Gothic 
alphabet remembering that the result must be pronounceable to a 
imagined Goth. Using a plausible folk-etymology would be fine I guess.

E.g., Chernyakhov may be Kairnjaxof. The start K is actually not k, 
but koppa used in historical Gothic as a numeral only. We can 
specialize it to render palatalized k, i.e. [ch]. One reason to do so 
is that in Cyrillic which was also based on Greek and is close to the 
Wulfilan alphabet in several other respects, the corresponding letter 
with the same shape and the same numerical value was and still is used 
for [ch]. The problem is how to transliterate it in Latin characters. 
I'd suggest using letter c. The letter x would do for [kh], again in 
accord with Cyrillic. The long [o] would designate that this vowel is 
stressed. The final f alternates with b in oblique cases.
So, Cairnjaxof, gen. Cairnjaxobis, adj. cairnjaxobisks.

For all fans of folk-etymology (and I am one of them myself) I'd 
suggest using Qairnugawi, lit. "mill region" or the like. This –gawi 
would support that this is a geographic location.

Romanian Romance names are probably to be led back to presumed Latin 
etymon which can be then "borrowed" into Gothic. Unfortunately I don't 
know the proto-form of Sintana. Maybe it would be just Sintana F.-o in 
Gothic? And what is a Gothic reconstruction for the river Mures. If I 
remember right Jordanes mentions it as Marisia. It's quite certain 
that the historical Goths did have a name for this river. What could 
it be?

Ualarauans

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/gothic-l/attachments/20070417/d30eb683/attachment.htm>