[gothic-l] Re:_ni_was__im_rumis_in_stada_œamma

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Hi Leonardo,

>Interesting, is it by a chance also related to the
>swedish word "stad" ( town, city ) ?
>Well, I wouldn't be surprised considering the fact
>that in this context we are all talking about germanic
>words. :)
>But still, I would like to know, thank you.
>
>/Leonardo.

I translated by "no room in the town",
                    rumis       stada

because I wanted a "loose" translation that reflected the similarity
to German as much as possible.

                 kein Raum in der Stadt

Also Swedish:    intet rum i staden

The Gothic word "staþs" is indeed etymologically related to Old
Norse staðr, Old English stede, Old Saxon stedi, Old High German
stad. In Old Norse the word could have a number of meanings.
But I think "place", "position" sums it up well. In Norway it is
one of the most common place-name endings as -stad. e.g. "Stikle-
stad" or "Gautestad", just to pick some random examples.
Also in Iceland do you find very many place-names with these
endings, e.g. Breiðabólstaðir.

The German word Statt and also Stadt are also eymologically
related to Gothic staþs, and is a word related to the verb
"stehen". Danish/Norwegian "stad" (=town) derives from Middle 
Low Dutch "stad"=town. Norwegian/Danish "sted" is the general
word for "locus" (an welcher Stelle liegt das Haus?).

As endings of place names there are around 2500 places ending
on -stad in Norway, 2000 in Sweden and 1150 in Iceland (staðr,
staðir). In Denmark it is a little less, only about 200. How
many there are in Germany I do not know, but it occurs there too.
In Norway the ending in placenames has frequently been abre-
viated to -sta or merely -st. What the meaning of -stad as
the ending of a place name really is, is debated. The simplest
solution is to assume it means "dwelling place". It usually
is merely a single farm. But they can be large and have much
land, though some are quite small as well.


In the Xmas gospel we always hear that Jesus was born outside
Bethlehem, where there were fields an shepherds. I assume that
"stada" then refers to Bethlehem, where they were unable to
rent a room (rumis), because everything was full.  This explanation
may however not be exact. And I suppose that too could be looked into.


Best regards
Keth

            
       



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