[gothic-l] Re: Hairus in diminutive

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Troels Brandt" <trbrandt at p...>
wrote:
> Thanks Llama!
>
> This leads me to following questions:
>
> How do we expect the word to be pronounced, and how is the change
> between singularis/pluralis?


Hi Troels,
The -a here is the masculine weak ending (an-stem), so it would be
declined like hana:

*hairula

ns. hairula, npl. hairulans
as. hairulans, apl. hairulans
gs. hairulins, gpl. hairulane
ds. hairulin, dpl. hairulam

The vocative would be the same as the nominative, singular & plural.


>
> Is it possible, that a people or a warrior known for their/his
small
> sword got the name "Hairula" by the Goths and that this name heard
by
> a Roman or a Greek could be misunderstood as Heruli/'eruli in
> pluralis?


Well, <h> was lost in the pronunciation of popular Latin, quite early
I think, although I don't know when exactly.  A lot of Germanic names
that began with vowels were recorded in Latin with an initial <h>
(Hermanric), and conversely a lot of names with a [h] lost it when
transcribed by Latin writers (Astingi).  So yes, it's possible.  On
the other hand, the tribal name Eruli, as you know, is usually
equated with the runic <erilaR>, and less certainly with the Eorle of
Beowulf.  Loss of [h] is not a normal feature of the Germanic
languages at this time, so for this idea to work the name would have
to have been taken from Germanic to Latin, and back from Latin to
Germanic.  I don't know enough about the history to say whether this
was likely, or if it conflicts with other theories.  Romanitas
certainly carried prestige in the North though, judging by the
bracteate designs, and according to one idea even the mottoes ALU,
LATHU, etc. may have been invented as equivalents to the mottoes on
Roman medallians.



> Is it alternatively a possibility that the ending "-ila" represents
> the same as the diminutive "-unge/-inga" in North Scandinavian
> languages - used a.e. on the Danish dynasty "Skjoldunger"
> ("Scyldinga" of Beowulf) meaning the descendants of the
king "Skjold"
> (meaning "shield").
>
> Troels


The endings aren't in any way etymologically cognate, but I guess
there could be some semantic overlap.

Llama Nom



>
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <penterakt at f...> wrote:
> > --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Troels Brandt" <trbrandt at p...>
> > wrote:
> > > To my knowledge the word for sword in Gothic is "hairus". How
> would
> > > this word be spelled combined with the Gothic diminutive "-ila"?
> > >
> > > Troels Brandt
> >
> >
> > Hi Troels,
> >
> > On the analogy of magus/magula, I'd guess: hairus / *hairula.
> >
> > Llama Nom



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