[gothic-l] Boyar

[gazariah]

Hi Ingemar,

> There is indeed  something called 'bo' in Sweden in old
administration
> during Early Middle ages and possibly already during late Viking
> period. It is an administrative area like a county or similar, and
> there was a kings-yard centrally in every bo headed by a loyal
> chieftain. The expression bojarl must most surely indicate just
such a
> chieftain being responsible for the bo.

This is exciting, and makes the etymology look a lot better. There
are still problems I would like to see addressed:

1. When did the term 'bo' come to be used this way? It would be nice
to have it dated no later than the time from which the Russian word
is attested.

2. How about a Norse/Swedish attestation of the compound 'bojarl'? It
would be more comfortable than supposing this was somehow specially
invented in Russia.

3. How will we account for the earlier form 'bol'ar-'? Vladimir's
idea about "instability" here won't really work. The appearance of
palatalized /l'/ in /spl'u/ ("I sleep") and the like is a regular
alternation appearing for older: labial consonant + /j/:
i.e. /spl'u/< /sp+j+u/. We don't have alternations of /j/ and /l'/
between vowels in Russian, so far as I know.

Answers to a couple (need not be all) of these would put this idea on
a sound footing. As I wrote before, the etymology of 'boyar' has been
much discussed among scholars in the past, who were well aware of
Norse influences. Still it's fun to try our hand on this tough nut.

Best greetings,
Gazariah



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