Back to Attila

[Wilson Gray]

"Atta" is Early Germanic. In addition to supplying the legendary Hun
with his nickname of "Little Father," it also supplied some Slavic
language, e.g. Russian, with their words for "father," "otets" in
Russian, wherein the etymological origin is also "little father" or,
perhaps better, "daddy." Gothic used both "atta" and "fathar."

-Wilson

On 6/20/07, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Back to Attila
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Your Name wrote:
> > At one point in this thread, someone said:
> >
> >
> > <<"Attila", I am told, is German for "little father" and may be a  title
> > rather than his name.
> > >>
> >
> >
> >
> > I asked a native German speaker.  His reply:
> > << nope, i've never heard that word.. >>
>
> My understanding is that it's Gothic, not German: "atta" ("father"), plus a
> diminutive.
>
> Jim Parish
>
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