[gothic-l] Re: Romans 1-3 Reconstruction (*bruk-)

[thiudans]

Hails!

In order to finish up this inquiry and move on, I decided to do
some research. Comparing the various i/ja adjectives and their
related nouns, keeping in mind which give rise to w1 verbs and
which have s(I, IV, V) verbs as their sources, I tried to discover
patterns that would lead to a conclusive form for our noun of the
stem "bru'k-". Considered were: hrains, -laugns, -siuns, nems,
auth(ei)s, -faurs, -mains, sels, skaun(ei)s, skeirs, su'ts. A
number of abstract weak feminine nouns were found of the -ei
variety, with meaning formed from the adjective in a way akin to
the adding of -ness to adjectives in English. Thus hrains "clean",
hrainei "cleanliness"; analaugns "secret", analaugnei "secrecy".
This would lead us to posit a noun *bru'kei "usefulness", a word,
while potentially *useful*, too far off course for our present
desire. In addition the -eis (mIA) type was found in its usual
nom. agentis occasion: siuneis "seer", alongside forms
preferring the weak ending -ja (mN): skeirja, gamainja. This too
is presently out of our domain; still let us postulate a "bru'keis" or
"bru'kja" user, employer (perhaps more of a logical connexion to
the weak class verb than to the adjective from which it is
derived). Now, we have -itha (fO) in authida "desert": let us
postulate *bru'kitha, bru'kida (fO) "usage, use". The older dental
suffix of feminine abstract nouns (th, d, t) would be slightly more
difficult to insinuate here: ? *bru'hts "use". In "unsu'ti" "un-
mildness" (from Go. su(')ts sweet) we have an example of the
nJA or nIA construction: let us postulate *bru'ki "usefulness".
This meaning is again not quite right, though it may be that the
idea held in Lat. "usus", Gk. "khreesis" is also here somewhere,
and I have followed too few examples too literally. Looking at
other extant Go. nouns of this class we see indeed some
abstracts of the type with which we are concerned: frathi (>
frathjan), wadi, taui, andbahti, arbi, garuni, gawairthi, kunthi, reiki,
and the -ubni/ufni nouns. Back to the adjectival inquiry: the
example of simplicity in -nem "taking" I admire, but must exclude
on account of its derivation as ablaut noun from strong verb
class IV. The neuter declension just mentioned has more at the
meaning anyhow. Lastly I would like to examine what I consider
the contending declension thereto, viz. the feminine i-declension
(ansts), which Koebler calls "i/o". Here we find a good number of
abstracts of the type interesting us here, many of which are
formed from the old dental suffix: ganists, gaskafts, gaqumths (<
qiman), gakusts, sauhts, slauhts, urrists, waurts, thaurfts,
mahts, aihts, ansts; or a nasal suffix: sokns, taikns, -busns.
Here we might construct *(ga)bru'hts. The masculine of the
same declension lack the old suffixes found in the feminine,
have slightly more concrete sense and are equally envisionable:
muns "thought", staths "place", striks "stroke", thlauhs "flight".
Another possibility not presented in the example of the i/ja
adjectives compared with bru'ks, but perhaps worthy of
investigation, is the jo-stem feminines (bandi): haiti, wasti,
wundufni, fraistubni: thus *bru'ki, *bru'kjos "use".

So, to choose:

bru'kitha (fO)
bru'ks (mI), bru'hts (fI)
bru'ki (nIA or nJA)
bru'ki (fJO)

That the NHG word Brauch is masc. seems to prefer the second
option above, i.e. bru'ks (mI). Apparently according to my
research this would be without precedent among the Go. i/ja
adjectives. Confusingly, strong masculine construction has
backing in the form of similar sounding Go. pair: hru'ks (mA) "a
crowing, a 'caw'" and hru'kjan (wv1) "crow". OE has for a noun
only bru'cung (which suggests Go. bru'keins (fI/O). Of course in
hundreds of ways Go. has seen to rebel against the
expectations of both WGerm. and NGerm.


Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Matthew


PS: get ready for the next reconstruction project: word for
"propitiation" Lat. "propitiatio"







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