Intro and question about Lombardic...

[dciurchea]

May I suggest that IH means Iisus Hristos and IN means Iisus 
Nazarinean, as common for that site and that era.

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Arthur Jones <arthurobin2002 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Hails alla
>    
>   In a quick response to a very well-placed query by Nathan 
Bellomy-McKnight about the Pernik Sword, might I posit the following:
>    
>   1. Some months ago I posted some info about this relic, and 
there is indeed much available online, although some of it is in 
Swedish, Italian, Bulgarian or German. Several of you out there can 
perhaps help me out here, although with sufficient time I may be 
able to ferret many such articles out and post them.
>    
>   Archaeological dating techniques date the sweord to the mid-
eighth Century AD. Pernik, where the sword was uncovered, lies 
between Sophia, Bulgaria, and the Serbian border. 
>    
>   2. We can tell that it is Langobardic because the text 
corresponds best and most consistently to the beginning era of the 
Second Sound Shift (Zweite Lautverschiebung) that nowadays 
distinguishes High German from Low German. Thus, in a number of 
existing Bavarian-Austrian dialects, including Zimbri, initial 
voiced labials such as "b" became unvoiced, i.e., turned into "p". 
This explains the "pid" and "pn". The "hwil" or "huil" Nathan is 
right about; "hweil" was the Gothic for hour or time. Further, the 
Alpine Zimbrisch dialect likewise uses "pn" where NHD uses "bin". 
Thus, the most likely translation is found at the end of this poem, 
undoubtedly written by a GREAT BUT UNRECOGNIZED MASTER BARD (ahem: 
me):
>    
>   I am mindful of inscriptions on a Langobardic sword;
>        Served well its master in the Balkans,
>   Sparked and rang off helm and shield,
>        Proved a voiceless turning point,
>                made
>   Raucous cries into faint gurgles,
>        Made the mighty yield.
>    
>   yet poems past, and sabres hoary,
>        Strive for memory and vain glory:
>    
>   IH INI NI HUIL PID    -- (I)H INI HUIL PN
>    
>   I, within, not (the) hour await;
>   I, within, (the) hour am.
>    
>   Please note that, as in Gothic, the letter "h" can indicate a 
guttural such as the "ch" in NHD "Bach" or "Buch". The "Pid" , 
Gothic "beidan", to bide, to await.
>    
>   Golja thuk,
>    
>   Aizamunds
>    
>   Arthur A. Jones
>   arthur.jones at ...
>   
> 
> Nathan Bellomy-McKnight <aelffin at ...> wrote:
>           Hi everybody, 
> 
> I've been subscribed to Gothic-L for a long time, but as far as I 
can recall
> I've never posted anything. Ironically, my first posting isn't 
about Gothic,
> but about another old Germanic language. I recently read about the 
Pernik
> Sword. It was found in Bulgaria in the 1920s I think, and has the 
following
> inscription: +IHININIhVILPIDHINIhVILPN+
> 
> In the last couple of years, a researcher claimed to have 
identified the
> language as Austro-Bavarian, Lombardic, or another early West 
Germanic
> language. The translation they give is "I do not await eternity, I 
am
> eternity." But since the paper isn't available online, I'm not 
sure of the
> intended parsing for such a translation. 
> 
> Assuming a West Germanic language with "hvil" for 
E. "while"/G. "weile", I
> would guess the inscription is supposed to be parsed as: "I hini 
ni hvilpid
> hini hvilpn". This would make -id and -n pretty typical Germanic 
verb
> inflections. But what's that p doing in there? -pid and -pn would 
be
> surprising verb endings I think. Could hvilp- be the root word? 
Wouldn't
> that make it less likely to be cognate with "while/weile"? Are 
there any
> potential cognates in other Germanic languages for somehting like 
this?
> Maybe: whilpan, whilvan, wilvan, vilfid, whilfed, völvon 
(Volvo!)...??? Am I
> barking up the wrong tree? Regardless though, if -id and -n are 
verb
> inflections, makes hvilpid sound like a past tense to me. Does 
anybody know
> if "hini" has cognates with a meaning similar to "eternity"? 
> 
> Personally, I think hvilp- (if that's the correct parsing) is more 
likely
> cognate with "wolf" (cf. PIE *wlp-), making the p in hvilp- an 
archaism that
> was dropped in other Germanic languages. That would make 
Lombardic: I hini
> ni hvilpid hini hvilpn. Something like "I am not wolfish, I am 
wolfen" or
> "I'm not wolf*like*, I *am* a wolf". In that case, 
Lombardic "hini" would
> probably be cognate with "hine", the Anglo-Saxon accusative case 
of "he". Or
> maybe hini functions like German heiße (Swedish heter, Icelandic 
heiþur) =
> "my name is", so Hvilpid would be a proper name (is Úlfið a 
name?), similar
> to Scandinavian Ulfs, Gothic Wulfilas, or German Wolfgang, giving 
the
> sentence a meaning akin to "Wolfgang's not just my name, I really 
am a
> wolf!" (Jag heter inte Ulfs, jag heter ulf / Ich heiße nicht 
Wolfgang, ich
> heiße Wolf) Not a half bad thing to inscribe on your sword if you 
ask me...
> Totally speculative, of course.
> 
> Any thoughts? 
> 
> Best,
> Nathan McKnight
> www.nathanmcknight.com
> 
> Nathan Bellomy
> Assistant Editor, Science
> McGraw-Hill School Solutions Group
> 8787 Orion Place | Columbus, OH 43240
> Phone: 614-430-4990 | Fax: 614-430-4403
> nathan_bellomy at ... 
> 
> The difference between 
> theory and practice
> is smaller in theory 
> than it is in practice. 
> 
> 
> 
>          
> 
> 
> ARTHUR A. JONES
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>


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