[gothic-l] Re: Christensen's book on the Goths

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Ravi Chaudhary"
<ravichaudhary2000 at y...> wrote:
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "faltin2001" <dirk at s...> wrote:
>  As I said, this is all exploratory for me, and I quite readily
defer
> to your greater knowledge.
>
>
> On Clans names, may I suggest, you look at the Files section of:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/
>
>  And see the Files Jat Clans: Jat Clan names in various countries "
>
>  I have posted about six of seven files.
>
>  I would like your input.
>
>
> "I don't think we know any Gothic clan names apart from the Amals
and
> Balths. "
>
>
>  I can see" Amal" coming from "Mal'. In the Iranian context, the
`A'
> is often added.
> We do find variants of  ` Mal' as Mal, Mull, Malhi. Malli."




Ravi, really those are superficial similarities. In fact, I don't
even find that very similar at all. The Amals have nothing to do with
Mal, Mull or Malli. Amal probably goes back to a mythical ancestor or
demi-god. Note that the name form Amal- is also included in German
place names like 'Amalinghausen', which means 'home of the Amals' and
Amalungen. While these placenames are not linked to the Gothic Amals,
they show that this name was well attested in Germanic territory.




>
>  Balths -. Could also be `Bal' with the suffix `th"
>
>  Bal is a very famous and large clan; spread all over the North,
> including what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan.
>
>  Variants of it are Bal, Baliyan.




Francisc already provided an answer. The name Balth is according to
Jordanes derived from 'bald, bold' meaning bold.

Before you go on digging out more name similarities, you should first
make a plausibility test and ask, given what we know about Gothic
history how likely is it that this and this names are genuinely
linked. I think you will find most of the time that places in Asia,
names of Indian, or Iranian origin are not the first choice as
explanations and interpretations.


Best
Dirk




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