Translating Getica (cerva)

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi, Ualarauans,

There might be a connection between the Hungarian "szarvas" and 
Latin "cervus", but not so direct. szarvas is a derivative form 
szarv "horn, antler", the meaning being "having horns/antlers". As 
substantive it means "deer" (any gender), and as adjective: "with 
horns/antlers, horned", as in the compound szarvasmarha "horned 
cattle".
The word szarv "horn" is common Finno-Ugrian, having cognates in all 
other Finno-Ugrian languages (Finnish: sarvi; Estonian: sarv; 
Livonian: so:ra, sa:ra; Saami [Lappish]: c^oar've; Mordvin: s'uro, 
s'ura; Mari [Cheremis]: s^ur; Udmurt: s'ur; Komi: s'ur; Khanty 
[Ostyak]: s'arBi; Mansi [Vogul]: s'o:re). This common Finno-Ugrian 
word is considered to be of Indo-European (satem, most probably 
Iranic) origin (cf. Avestan sru:, srva:, Mod. Pers. seru:, suru:[n]; 
other cognates mentioned there are Latin cervus and German Horn). 
(source: A Magyar Nyelv Történeti-Etimológiai Szótára [The Historical-
Etymological Dictionary of the Hungarian Language], Akadémiai Kiadó, 
Budapest, 1976)
The old Hungarian chronicles mentioning the deer-legend were written 
in Latin, the oldest of them being that of Simon de Keza (written 
1282-1285) (followed by the Chronicon Hungariae Pictum / Painted 
Chronicle of Vienna, written around 1360, etc.). Until now, I have 
found only modern Hungarian translations of Keza's work, where the 
animal appears sometimes as "gímszarvas" (stag), sometimes 
as "szarvas ünö" (doe). But, finally, I have found the Latin text, 
only a part of it, but containing the passage of interest 
(http://www.konyv-e.hu/pdf/Kezai-latin-r.pdf): there is clearly about 
a "cerva" ! The passage reads:
"Accidit autem dierum una venandi causa ipsos perrexisse; quibus in 
deserto cum cerva occurrisset, in paludes Meotidas illam insequentes, 
fugiit ante eos. Cumque ibi ab oculis eorum prorsus vanuisset, 
diutius requisitam invenire nullo modo potuerunt. Peragratis tandem 
paludibus memoratis pro armentis nutriendis ipsam conspexerant 
oportunam."
The influence of Iordanes is obvious.

Francisc



--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ualarauans" <ualarauans at ...> wrote:
> ...
> There's actually some evidence for an alternative tradition. In 
> several versions of the deer-legend the animal could have been 
male. 
> The Old Church Slavonic translation of the Simeon Logotheta's 
> Chronicle (10th ct.) says: GotQi prêshídúshe Meotískoje jezero 
> elafomí vodimi "The Goths (sic!) having crossed the Maeotic lake 
led 
> by a deer (masculine)", where elafomí (instr. sg. of elafú*) is of 
> course Greek ELAFOS which can be both masculine and feminine. The 
> Hungarian legend mentions szarvas "stag" (see 
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/message/4894). 
Hungarian 
> doesn't distinguish grammatical genders, but szarvas seems to be 
> borrowed from a satem IE (Iranian?) masculine word cognate to Lat. 
> cervus.
> ...


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