[gothic-l] Heruli / Harii

[george knysh]

--- "Troels Brandt <trbrandt at post9.tele.dk>"
<trbrandt at post9.tele.dk> wrote:
> Earlier at this list Andreas Schwarcz and George
> Knysh concluded that
> the attacking "Borani" in 267 AD could mean "people
> from the north"
> and that "Elouroi" could mean "people from the
> swamps" – both
> symbolizing people of other names.
>
> The versions we use as the names for the attacking
> Heruls – Goths
> according to Procopius - are earlier translations
> from Germanic to
> Greek and Latin – maybe being influenced by a first
> misunderstanding
> of "Elouroy" - and being later "frozen" by writing.
> To a certain
> degree these versions could be independent of the
> development of the
> Germanic pronouncation of the name until the Heruls
> disappeared in
> the 6th century.
>
> In the same way Tacitus' Harii is just a translation
> of a Germanic
> name which elsewhere is unknown to us though maybe
> deriving from
> HarjaR
>
> If we as an experiment assume that the Heruls were
> Harii mixed up
> with their neighbours Goths and maybe Alani at the
> Black Sea could
> then runic "ErilaR" (450-550 AD) and German/Latin
> "Herilungo-" (832
> AD) be a natural Gothic/Germanic development from
> "HarjaR"/"Harii"?
>
> Would it make sense to add the diminutive suffix
> "-ila" to
> HarjaR/Harii? Is it correct that this suffix could
> mean "belonging
> to"/"part of"? Is the similar diminutive suffix
> "-ul" in any language?
>
> Could Alanic/Iranian influence alternatively cause
> the "u" or "l" in
> Heruli?
>
> Troels

******GK: Perhaps the excellent linguists on Cybalist
might solve some (or all) of these linguistic
problems?  I see that I've jotted down in my Pliny
notes that he knew of "Hirri" where Tacitus spoke of
"Harii". I'll have a look at my copy of Mahomedov
(2001) and see what he has to say about the Eruli in
the context of his analysis of the Chernyakhiv
culture.******
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/