[gothic-l] Re: four points of the compass

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Manie Lombard" <manielombard at c...> 
wrote:
> Does anybody know where I can find the four directions, both as 
substantive 
> and adjective (South Africa, North Korea,...)? Which post deals 
with that?


Hails Manie!

Good question.  I don´t know of any posts--though I´m sure there 
will be some somewhere--but here are some things to think about.  
The Oxford English dictionary notes in its entry for NORTH:

"In Old English and Old Saxon the word appears only as an adverb 
(and as the first element of compounds: see below), in Old High 
German only as a noun; in Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, and Old 
Icelandic it had both functions. The adjectival use in English prob. 
developed from the Old English use as the first element of compounds 
(cf. also NORTHDEAL n., NORTH END n., NORTH HALF n., etc.). Similar 
compounds also occur in the cognate languages, but have not given 
rise to a purely adjectival use of the word."

David Salo´s suggestion for "Norwegian" in the post 834 seems like a 
good way of forming directional adjectives.  OE norþerne (>MnE 
northern), ON norroenn, OHG nordrôni would correspond to Go. 
*naurþroneis (ja-stem), or *naurþrons (i-stem).  The ja-stem suffix 
may have been used to indicate place of origin, and other spacial 
characteristics, e.g. holtijaz on the Gallehus horn (cf. 
Runeinnskriften på gullhornet fra Gallehus, by Ottar Grønvik, 
http://www.samlaget.no/maalogminne/1_99/Gronvik_(NY).pdf ).  The 
Gothic adjectives anahaimj- "at home, present" and afhaim- "away 
from home, absent" are only attested in ambiguous forms that could 
be i- or ja-stem.  Braune (Gotische Grammatik) lists them as 
probably ja-, but framaþj- "belonging to another person" as probably 
i-.  No explanation is given given.

So on ballance maybe *naurþroneis?

The name tribal Ostrogothi suggests that -r- was used in compounds: 
*naurþra-, *sunþra-, *austra-, *wistra-.  Likewise with the personal 
name Sontrilli, if from Sunþrahildi as Koebler suggests.  Perhaps 
national names like South Africa, North Korea would have been 
compounded like this.

The same method might have been used to make a noun "the north", cf. 
OIc. norðrhálfa, OS northhalva, OHG nordhalb, OE on norðhealfe "in 
the north".  Cf. Go. halba "half, side".  Maybe also with Go. -
fera "side, region".  Or by analogy with OE norþdæ´l, Early NHG 
Nordteil, MDu. nordeel, Du. noorderdeel: Go. *naurþradails "the 
northern part, the north [of a region]".  Alternatively, we might 
make a simple noun *naurþr by analogy with OIc. norðr, neuter 
(the 'r' is part of the root).

I imagine directional adverbs would have been formed in a similar 
way to other spacial adverbs, thus:

*naurþ(r), *naurþaþ, "towards the north"
*naurþa, *naurþar "in the north"
*naurþaþro, *naurþana "from the north"

Re. the direction "towards", does anyone have any thoughts on 
whether the form with -r or without would be preferrable?  OIc. 
norðr, but OE norð (other WG languages are like OE in this regard).  
OIc. has compounds both with and without 'r', I think more with, but 
OIc. norðan "from the north.

Llama Nom





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