[gothic-l] Gepids

[Bertil Häggman]

Keth,

Yes, I have provided the text of Jordanes in
English. J. refers to a Gepidic word "gepanta",
which there is, I believe, no record of elsewhere.

Jordanes wrote in Getica XVII:94,95:

"You surely remember that in the begining I said
the Goths went forth from the bosom of the island
of Scandza with Berig, their king, sailing in only
three ships toward the hither shore of Ocean,
namely to Gothiscandza. One of these three
ships proved to be slower than the others, as is
usually the case, and thus is said to have given the 
tribe their name, for in their language gepanta means
slow. Hence it came to pass that gradually and
by corruption the name Gepidae was coined for them
by way of reproach. For undoubtedly they too trace
their origin from the stock of the Goths, but because,
as I have said, gepanta means something slow and
stolid, the word Gepidae arose as a gratuitous
name of reproach. I do not believe this is very far wrong,
for they are slow of thought and too sluggish for
quick movement of their bodies."

In my opinion Jordanes refers to a word in the 
Gepidic language, not the Gothic.

Standing by my opinion that Gepid originates from
Gaut/Gapt I wonder if it is possible linguistically to reconstruct
gep- from the Gothic word *beidan.?

Gepidically

Bertil



I don't know if it was already mentioned, but Iordanes explained
the origin of the name "Gepidae", in that one of the 3 ships
that the original Goths used under their king Berig to emigrate
from the island Scanza, was lagging behind the two other ships,
and that the name "Gepidae" derives from this; for here Iordanes
adds the explanation "nam lingua eorum pigra gepanta dicitur".
(pigra = lazy, slow, dull)

It is a pity that the number of Gothic words that are found in the
Gothic Bible are so few, and that I am unable to find this Gothic
word that Iordanes mentions here : gepanta. In fact, I looked
both under g as well as under p. The idea of looking under p,
derives by analogy from, for example, German, where a word for "fast"
(geschwind) is closely related to MHG "swind", because -ge is
simply a prefix used to build words, which I assume has been operative
in Gothic as well as in Old German. (I don't know what the technical
term for such a prefix is. Is there any one who can give a more
professional explanation of the phenomenon?)

I see, however, that Gothic has very few words that begin on p.
But there are many words that begin on f. I also remember from
Old Norse that the language often vacillates between p and f for
a given sound (e.g. eptir/eftir). Hence it seems to me that one
may equally well look for a Gothic word that begins on an f, and
has a meaning that is related to slowness. But I was unable to
find any. Then it strikes me that sometimes there is also a close
relationship between p and b. Hence I should also look for a Gothic
word that begins with a b, and means "slow" or something similar.
I then recall the Norwegian word for "to wait" = å bie, which
I do find in the Gothic dictionary as the verb *beidan. Associated
with it are also words like *ga-beidan = to endure, which is actually
close enough to the name Gepid that we seek to explain. Could this
then be the solution ?  (I wonder) ..

Another possible solution, that is very similar, lies in the verb *baidjan,
that means "to excercise a constraint" (moral), with which there are
also associated forms like *gabaidjan.




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