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

[David Kiltz]

Salut Michel,

On 17.09.2006, at 13:28, michelsauvant wrote:

> I read all the messages about the words for "king" in gothic
> language, and I know that there is no evidence that Goths borrowed a
> word like "kunig" or something else similar, with the meaning
> of "king".

Indeed comparative evidence allows us to reconstruct Proto-Germanic  
*_kuningaz_ (with -uni-, never with doubled -nn-) which would > Goth.  
**_kuniggs_, that is /kunings/. Note that forms without the second n  
are only attested late in OHG but are typical for MHG. _Cyn(e)g_ next  
to the more frequent _cyning_ is attested in Old-English but here  
too, is of rather late occurrence. So, there is no **_kunigas_ aut  
sim. in Proto-Germanic. The Lithuanian word is later loan. The change  
OHG _kuning_ > _kunig_ (MHG _könec_, with a few additional changes)  
isn't trivial, at least not trivial enough to simply be assume for  
Gothic in Spain, I think. You noted the additional difficulty, that  
the word isn't actually attested in Gothic, not even -AFAIK- in the  
onomasticon, which bears heavy significance, I'd say. If one assumes  
e.g. that the Gothic lexicon in Spain was influenced by their  
Germanic cousins the Suebi who spoke a West-Germanic language one  
still is left with some problems: The Suebi settled, AFAIK, in the  
extreme west of the Iberian peninsula. More importantly, however,  
there are problems with the sound shape of _Canigo_. All actual  
evidence for the disappearance of the second _n_ in *_kuningas_ and  
its descendants in Germanic post-dates the Gothic and Suebi  
settlement in the Iberian Peninsula by a good bit. Lastly, is there  
any evidence for PGm. *u > a in Romance ?

Best,

David

P.S. Just read this:
> Yes, sorry, I made a mistake I wrote "kunego" instead of "kunegu"
Two little things here: Both u's should be marked with a breve (they  
are actually Ъ, the back 'Jerlaut').
Much more importantly though, the _e_ is nasalised! That means, it  
goes back the PGm. _in_. PGm. _i_ would have yielded Slavonic short  
_i_ (Ь).

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