Visigothic identity of Spain

[ualarauans]

Hails, Rydwlf!

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Rydwlf <mitsuhippon at ...> wrote:
>
>    About "Guzmán" as a word, there is some interesting facts. In 
fact, it does
> exist in modern Spanish, as "guzmán", although it's not very used 
and may be
> regarded as an archaism. I can tell you that I didn't think it 
existed as a
> modern-use word, but I looked for it in the dictionary (just in 
case) and it
> turned out that it existed.
> 
>    In the Dictionary from the Real Academia de la Lengua
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Academia_Espa%C3%B1ola), that 
is the
> organization responsible of regulating the Spanish language, and 
compiling
> updated dictionaries, the word "guzmán" appears as follows:
> 
>    guzmán (De Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, llamado el Bueno, 1256-1309, 
caballero
> castellano a quien la tradición atribuye todas las virtudes 
caballerescas).
>    1. m. Noble que servía en la Armada real y en el Ejército de 
España con plaza
> de soldado, pero con distinción.
> 
>    So the word really comes from a single individual, in this case 
Alonso Pérez
> de Guzmán, so the origin of the word goes back to the problem of 
identifying the
> origin of the surname.

This is very interesting. Thank you for your research! 

> About this, I have searched in etymology pages and the
> most accepted theory is that of a germanic origin, be it Gothic or 
German.
> 
>    The generalized opinion in these pages is that the name comes 
from Gundemar,
> the king of the Visigoths in Hispania from 610 to 612. In the 
later half of the
> 16th Century, the Spanish economist Fr. Bartolomé Frías de 
Albornoz, who also
> did some etymology research at his time, proposed the 
name "Guzmán" as derived
> from the name of a British prince called "Gutiman". Gonzalo Argote 
de Molina
> (1549-1596), Spanish author, stated that in the 950, the count Don 
Nuño Muñoz
> founded in Roa de Duero (in the actual province of Burgos) and in 
the place of
> Guzmán, the original site of the House of Guzmán. Unfortunately, I 
don't have
> the exact sources for this quotes. It is a fact, though, that 
there exists a
> village called Guzmán in the province of Burgos.
> 
>    About the statement of the Duchess of Medina-Sidonia in which 
she says that
> most probably the name was of moorish origin, that may be true, 
but in turn
> there turns out to be a theory in which the original name, still 
of Gothic
> origin, underwent some changes when under moorish rule. Thus, the 
families with
> that name who accepted to convert to Islam or live in moorish 
territory adapted
> the name and it changed from Gundemaro -> Guz de Maro -> Guz de 
Mar -> Guzmar ->
> Guzman. This assumes that in mozarabic language the "de" particle 
was taken as a
> generic mark and it disappeared.

Well, strictly spoken, Gundemarus is not Gothic, but Burgundian. 
Notice the voiced stop [d] and the long [a:] which features are 
clearly North-West Germanic, shared by Burgundian (as a result of a 
longer intercourse?) unlike other East Germanic languages. The royal 
Burgundian dynasty favored names with the Gund- element: their kings 
were called Gundacharius, Gundobadus, Gundeuechus et sim. Gothic 
*Gunþimêrs ("battle/famous") would probably appear as Gunthemirus in 
a Latinized source.

>    It is a fact, anyway, that under the dictatorship of General 
Franco in the
> past century in Spain, there was an interest in exalting the 
Visigothic past of
> Spain and in linking the origin of the Spanish modern nobility to 
the Gothic
> one. Most people who are now from 50 to 60 years old had to 
memorize the list of
> all the Visigothic Kings when they were children at school. The 
term "list of
> the Gothic Kings" is used often in modern Spanish to refer to a 
dull and boring
> task.

How is it in Spanish? I know there are still some expressions in the 
language of today which go back to the times of, if not the 
Visigoths themselves, then the rise of the Spanish Gothicism. Could 
you please refer to some list of such phrases, or maybe post it 
here? Thanks in advance!

>    Kind regards,
> 
>    Rydwlf

Ualarauans


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