Translating Getica (cerva)

[ualarauans]

Hi Lama,

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell at ...> wrote:
>
> Hey there, Ualarauans,
> 
> I see I've got a bit of catching up reading recent posts!  In the
> meantime, another Germanic word for "deer" could be reconstructed 
as
> 
> 'raiha' M. -an. (OE 'rá', earlier 'ráha'; OE 'ráh-déor'; 
ON 'rábukkr'
> "roe-buck", OHG rêh, rêch - but 'rêho' "billy goat").
> 'raih(j)o', F. -on. (OE 'ræ:ge', G 'Rehe' - but OHG 'rêia'"she-
goat";
> ON 'rá').
> 
> Under Rehe, Grimm lists the following synonyms: ricke, rehe, 
hille, geisz.
> 
> When I was working on that poem [
> http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/drus.htm ], I didn't realise (or 
else
> had forgotten) that the deer was female in Jordanes.  I referred 
to it
> as 'hairuts', 'raiha' and less specifically 'dius' "animal".  So I
> might have to revise that.  Or just call it an alternative 
tradition...

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.

Still, Sozomenus (Hist. Eccl. VI, 37) writes: ELAFOS DIAFUGOUSA 
(feminine). Procopius (Bell. Goth. IV, 5) writes: ELAFON DE MIAN 
PROS AUTWN FEUFOUSAN (feminine); THi ELAFWi EPISPESQAI TAUTHi 
(feminine). Agathias (Hist. V, 11): EITE hWS ALLHQWS ELAFOU TINOS 
KATA TOUTO DH TO QRULOUMENON TA PRWTA hHGHSAMENHS (feminine).

> > *haíruts M.-a "deer" (ON hjörtr, OE heor(o)t, OHG hiruz). Seems 
OK
> > semantically, but I am at a total loss with probable feminine.
> > *hairuti F.-jo?
> 
> It would be handy for my alliteration if we could find one.  I 
wonder
> what Grimm's 'hille' comes from.

In MHG hilde, hille meant "eifrig", "rasch", "geschäftig". Is this 
it? Fick-Falk-Torp (1909) explain it as a probable cognate of PG 
*haldan with the original meaning "(Vieh) hüten".

Ualarauans

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