[gothic-l] Re: Heyerdahl, the Goths and the Aesir

[czobor at CANTACUZINO.RO]

In addition, I would point on the fact that the names Azerbaidjan,
Azeri are not very old, in this fonetic shape at least.
Azeri is derived from Azerbaidjan, and not viceversa.
The old name of this province, as a part of the Persian Empire, was
Media Atropatene (Grecized Old Persian term).
Atropatene changed in Medio-Persian in Adurbadagan.
Adurbadagan became later Aderbaigan.
After the conquest of Iran by the Arabs (8th century), the name
Aderbaigan was arabized by a way that is typical for arabization of
Persian words:
d > dh (like "th" in English "this"), pronounced in Modern Persian as
z;
g > dj (like English "j").
Thus: Aderbaigan > Adherbaidjan > Azerbaidjan.

In conclusion, one should not compare "Azeri" with "Aesir", but rather
their original forms, as they probably sounded in the first century:
"Atropatene" and "*Ansu-". Not very similar, isn't it?

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at y..., MCLSSAA2 at f... wrote:
> I am sorry to put a limpet mine on the ships of some people's
> imaginations (I scuba dive); but to me the resemblance between
[AEsir]
> and [Azeri] is yet another chance coincidence. Likely Snorri
Sturluson
> heard of the Azeri people by some route, perhaps via Vikings who
found
> a way along the great rivers of Russia and across the Black Sea to
> Constantinople. He either guessed wrongly from the similar names, or
> claimed a connection as a way to debunk the old Norse heathen
religion
> by claiming that the old gods were the deified memories of some
> humans. He was Christian.
>
> The older form of Old Norse [AEsir] is Common Germanic [Ansu-], and
> that looks less like "Azeri".
>
> AElfric the Anglo-Saxon author did the same with the Greek-Roman
gods:
> he claimed that they were the deified memories of a rather
> disreputable family of humans who had lived on Crete.


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