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

[Manie Lombard]

Thanx Llama Nom

I will use this information for my list and posted it as soon as I am
finished with it!!!

Manie

----- Original Message -----
From: "llama_nom" <600cell at oe.eclipse.co.uk>
To: <gothic-l at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 8:21 PM
Subject: [gothic-l] Re: four points of the compass


--- 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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