[gothic-l] Re: Carpathians and Croatians

[Francisc Czobor]

Dear Vladimir,

Very interesting indeed, because Greutungi/Tervingi represent the 
opposition "plain dwellers / wood dwellers", exactly 
like "Polyane/Drevlyane". About the opposition "Serbs/Croats" 
(Srb/Hrvat), you don't have to forget that these are old Slavic 
tribal names, found also elsewhere in the Slavic world ("Serbs" are 
also the Sorabs, or Lusacian Serbs, still living in NE Germany, 
while "Croats" were also the White Croats, who lived approx. where is 
now the Transcarpatian Region [Zakarpatskaya Oblast'] of Ukraine). 
The Illyric languages represent a separate branch of Indo-European. 
In the past, some scholars regarded them as closely related to 
Thracian, speaking about a "Thraco-Illyric" language group, but today 
they are regarded rather as different branches of Indo-European, the 
Thracian languages (Geto-Daco-Moesian, Southern Thracian, and Mysian) 
being "satem" languages, most closely related probably to Phrygian, 
while the Illyric languages where apparently rather "centum" 
languages.
Regarding the origin of the name "Tervingi", the most accepted 
interpretation (found also in Köbler's comprehensive "Gotisches 
Wörterbuch") is "woodlanders, inabitants of the woods", the root terv-
 being considered a variant of the Gothic word "triu" = "wood, stick" 
(cognate, for instance, with the English word "tree" and, on Indo-
European level, for instance with the Greek "drus" = "oak", and with 
Russian "derevo").
I tried to gothicize your first name as "Waldamer(ei)s", because once 
I have read that "Vladimir" comes from "Valdemar", and the last would 
be in Gothic "Waldamer(ei)s". The form "Lodomer" for "Vladimir" as a 
place name is found indeed in the Hungarian chronicle "Gesta 
Hungarorum", with anonymous author (called "Anonymus"), of the 
11/12th century, but describing events of the 9/10th century. I 
thought that "Lodomer" is an Old Hungarian deformation of "Vladimir" 
(probably in the variant "Volodimir/Wlodimir") rather than the 
correct form for "Vladimir". This supposition is supported also by 
the fact that "Vladimir" became in Lithuanian "Valdimieras", with the 
significance "ruler, king" (exactly like the Latin proper name Caesar 
becoming "kaisar" in Gothic, "Kaiser" in German, and "tzar" in 
Slavic, all meaning "emperor", or the Frankish proper name Karl 
becoming korol'/krol/kral' in Slavic languages, meaning "king"). But 
in case you're right, than the Gothic form of "Vladimir" would 
be "Hlothamer(ei)s".

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, åÇÏÒÏ× ÷ÌÁÄÉÍÉÒ <vegorov at i...> wrote:
> Hi Francisc!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-
com:office:office" />
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for your exhaustive comments making 
> the matter more precise to me. I'm not very 
> experienced in the legal Gothic history, 
> and my suppositions are more intuitive (and 
> maybe naive) than scientific and well grounded. 
> But I still can not get rid from a feeling 
> that the contraposition of the East Goths 
> (Greutungi) and West Goths (Tervingi) might
> be extended not only to the Slavic tribes 
> 'Polyane'/'Drevlyane' of the Russian Original 
> Chronicle but to the Serbs/Croats as well. 
> Perhaps I am wrong but I do not give up and 
> keep looking for proper arguments.
> 
>  
> 
> In this connection, could you help me in 
> a particular problem regarding Illyric languages, 
> the Geto-Dacian language specifically. Derivation 
> of the ethnonym 'Terving' (i.e. the stem 'terv') 
> from the Geto-Dacian language, interesting by 
> itself, would have far-reaching consequences.
> 
>  
> 
> Regarding my first name and not rejecting your 
> conventional interpretation based on transliterating 
> 'Vladi-' as 'Walda-', I should note that some 
> Hungarian and old Greek chronicles transliterated 
> 'Vladimir' as 'Lodomer'/'Lodimer'. The Hungarians 
> and Greeks were closer to Kiev of the 10/11th centuries, 
> and trusting to them we have to derive 'Vlad' from old 
> Germanic 'Hloed(r)' (later German 'Lotar').
> 
>  
> 
> Vladimir
> 
>  
> 
> **********
> 



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