[gothic-l] Re: Saúrts/Surtr in phonological darkness or light?

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "konrad_oddsson" <konrad_oddsson at y...> wrote:
> This message is for Troel, Bertil and Einar, who were previously 
> discussing the name "Surtr" in connection with Gothic, and for 
> anyone else with an interest in this topic. I find forms such 
> as "Swartus" or "Swartw-" to be unlikely for the simple reason that 
> Gothic phonology tends to have "aú" (ON."o") before "r". Whereas 
> Norse shows both primitive "u" a "o" in positions before "r", 
fourth 
> century Gothic shows "aú"(compare N."þeir urðu", N."hann er 
orðinn", 
> N."urt" for Gothic "waúrts", N."orð" for Gothic "waúrd", "at yrkja" 
> and "hann orti" for forms of Gothic "waúrkjan"). On the basis of 
> this I am inclined to regard the form "Saúrts" as more likely for 
> Gothic. Also, a simple adjectival form like "black/dark" would 
> probably be confusing to even native speakers of a language - 
> sentences like "Black is coming soon" would be vague. 


The personal name 'Suarto' and 'Swarto' is mentioned several times in 
old high German sources of the 8-10th century. The name means 'the 
black one'. Compare to modern low German 'suart/swart' meaning black. 

Dirk 



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