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

[urba_kestutis]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "michelsauvant" <michelsauvant at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Hello
> 
> I'm a French and specialist of toponomy for Northern Catalonia 
> (Gothaland??) a region where Visigoths lived between 414 and the 
> 750's (Septimania).
> 
> I am writing to you in order to verify a personal assumption about 
> the name "Canigo" of one of the summit in this country.
> 
> This name could have been given by Goths as  "Kunighauh" .
> But what could be the exact meaning ? 
> 
> 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".
> But we know that such word existed, around the Ost-Baltic sea, 
> spoken by Visigoth's ancestors. At that time the meaning could 
> be "noble" and Visigoths could have borrowed the word with the 
same 
> meaning, or the meaning of "prinz", despite their usage of the 
> words "reiks" or " thiodans" for their proper kings.
> The word "kunego" = prinz in old slavonic  is compatible with my 
> assumption.
> 
> I precise that this remarkable mountain Canigo -- we can see it 
from 
> the sea side the main summit (around 2800m) like the Fujijama 
> inJapan-- was not mentioned by antics authors travelling there.
> Despite 5 centuries with the grecian city of Emporion near it, and 
5 
> centuries of government by Romans! 
> So its name seems to be done between 400 (start of the lack of 
> authors writing about something with no relation with the Bible) 
and 
> 875 (first occurrence of the name "Canigo" in a document). 
> In consequence this name is necessarily from Visigoths or Franks. 
> But I can explain why this name was not created by Franks coming 
> around 750.
> And I can tell you that a name meaning "Noble Mount " is 
> particularly adapted to its magnificence. The highness of the 
Canigo 
> could have inspired this adjective to the Goths.
> 
> If you tell me that this assumption is false, I have an other 
> assumption:
> The proto-germanic  ancestor of the OHG word "kunig"or "kunning" 
> (and all the similar words meaning "king" in various countries) 
> could have been a concatenation between "kuni"= "family or people" 
> and "gur" = "en haut". I think at the corresponding word "kunigur" 
> in the isolated Iceland. 
> In that case the etymological meaning of an hypothetical gothic 
> word "kunig" (or "kunigo" or "kunigas") could be "somebody being 
> over the members of his family, or tribu or clan"
 as a king is.
> In this case it could have been used for a personified summit over 
> the other summits in the same set of mountains, to tell everybody 
> that is the highest mountain.
> NB. An other origine for "kuning/kunigas/kunigur" could 
> be "Khan+i+goh" = higher lord.
> considering that "khan" was the word for "lord" somewhere in 
central 
> Asia. 
> 
> If these two assumptions are false, I must admit that some indo-
> european around 1500-800BC gave the name "khanigo" as a 
> concatenation of "Khan + i +go" = higher summit (hier "Khan" 
> means "summit" (preindoeuropean meaning ),  even if no antic 
author 
> mentioned this remarkable mountain. 
> 
> What do you thing of  this ?
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Michel Sauvant
> michelsauvant at ...
>

Hi Michel,

There is in Greece similar word for kunig - êõíçãüò and this means 
simple - hunter. So I suppose that the most simple explanation when 
seeking the origin of kunig is that KING-KUNIG.... had the meaning 
of the best chief hunter (using dog - canis). Possibly this word 
spreaded to the neighbours of ancient Greeks - slavic people, and 
later -baltic (we have in lithuanian - kunigas -priest and 
kunigaikshtis - someone like the KING) but how this word pernetrated 
Gothic lands and when - it is not easy understand. Possibly in the 
bronze age or in the beginning of the iron age.

Best regards
Kestutis K.Urba

P.s. I've tried to post this yesterday but was unlucky. So I became 
the member yesterday and now trying post this again.
   





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