[gothic-l] Re: Hansa

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi, Terje,

as Tore already pointed out, "Hansa" is a common Germanic word, the
reconstructed form being *hanso:
The origin of German "Hanse" is MLG hanse "fellowship, merchants'
guild", cognate with OHG hansa "military troop, band, company".
In Gothic "hansa" means, according to Koebler, "cohort, battalion,
maniple, crowd, troop". According to the same source, the IE root of
this common Germanic word is unclear.
The word was borrowed in early times by Finnic and Slavic.
So, for instance, in Finnish "kansa" means "people, nation".
In Polish "cha,sa" (a, = the Polish nasal a vowel) means "theft",
having, according to Czarnecki, cognates with the same meaning in
other Slavic languages (Old Russian, Slovintz, Serbo-Croatian,
Slovenian).
The source for Finnic is Proto-Nordic, whereas for Slavic is either
Gothic or OHG.

Francisc





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