Was the word "kunig/kunigas/kunigur" a gothic word?

[ualarauans]

Hi Michel and Ingemar

The Gothic form of the word is reconstructed as *kuniggs (read 
[kunings] in the Wulfilan-style orthography). Of its existence in 
Gothic we may probably conclude from a series of loanwords into East-
European languages. Here we have Finnish and Estonian kuningas
"king", which preserve best the Proto-Germanic sound shape 
(*kuningaz, but perhaps an earlier Gothic form could be *kuningas as 
well), then Lithuanian kunigas and Lettish kungs "lord", "master", 
finally Old Church Slavonic kÚnędzÜ [kunendzi] "king",then "prince",
"duke" (as an aristocratic title). The Finns and the Balts could 
have borrowed it directly from the Northland, but in the case of the 
Slavs we probably have to assume a Gothic contribution, because 
apparently they were the first speakers of a Germanic idiom whom the 
Slavs contacted.

The word reiks in the Bible translates Greek ARCWN, which 
conventionally corresponded to Latin dux in the bilingual practice 
of the late Empire, and we meet both rex and dux used with reference 
to Germanic tribal chieftains ("kings") in contemporary sources. Can 
it bear some weight for the topic? And, of course, reiks could 
easily acquire folk-etymological links to rex after the Goths 
entered the Roman domain, as Ingemar pointed out. But it was hardly 
a "later invention by influence from the Roman realm". The word is 
usually considered as a Celtic loan into PG, several centuries 
before the start of the Gothic wars, maybe. And the Getica cannot 
tell us which particular Gothic king was named what in Gothic, 
because it was written in Latin and, whenever the author was dealing 
with thiudans, *kuniggs or reiks, he had a little choice between rex 
and dux, which is exactly what we see there.

If we look into the Wulfila's translation, we may find out that 
reiks, when used adjectively, could have grades of comparison. That 
is, a person could be more or less `reiks' as compared to others. Mc 
3:22 thamma reikistin unhulthono, for Greek TW ARCONTI TWN 
DAIMONIWN, literally "to the most `reiks' of demons". Similarly Joh. 
18:22 thamma reikistin gudjin, TW ARCIEREI. Could there be a 
Standard Gothic phrase like *thamma reikistin thiudana "to the 
most `reiks' of kings", used with reference to the Roman emperor, 
maybe, as distinguished from all the kings of the Barbarians? The 
Ostrogoths could have used it for Attila as well. At least we know 
from the Calendar that thiudans could be occasionally used 
for "emperor" (The 3rd of November, a day of Kustanteinus thiudanis).

As for possibility of deriving Canigo from *Kuniggahauhei (the most 
plausible Gothic reconstruction, meaning "King's height" and 
pronounced [kuningahauhi:], with a Visigothic diphthong, I am rather 
skeptical. You cannot explain (can you?) why it's [a] instead of [u] 
or [o] in the first syllable, which [u] > [a] is quite an impossible 
change for all I know. The suffix Gothic –igg- [ing] was adopted as
-engo in Ibero-Romance, cf. Spanish abolengo, realengo (Rom. real + 
Go. –ing-). Its form –ig- which we find in today's Koenig is Middle 
or even Early New High German. In OHG times they still said kuning, 
and there is no evidence to suggest the loss of the nasal in Gothic. 
Being no expert in Romance philology I'd suggest our hypothetical 
*Kuniggahauhei becoming smth like Conengoya today. Couldn't Canigo 
be connected with Lat. canis "dog"?

Ualarauans






You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:gothic-l-digest at yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:gothic-l-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    gothic-l-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/