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

[ualarauans]

Kails, Urba!

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "urba_kestutis" <urba_kestutis at ...> 
wrote:
>
> about (2) - in prussian language there is rikis and this sounds 
like
> lithuanian rekti - the meaning to shout and rikiuoti - to make 
order
> in some millitary troop ar army, so for me - rex is the great
> shouter near his army and order maker. The king is the best hunter
> according to the greek word for hunter – kunegos

Prussian ri:kis is most probably a Gothic loan, as so much of the 
Prussian word-hoard are. Most likely their ancestors were Jordanes' 
Uidiuarii, Go. *Widuwarjos "forest dwellers" and/or probably
Aesti - *Aisteis (ad litus autem oceani, ubi tribus faucibus fluenta 
Uistulae fluminis ebibuntur, Uidiuarii resident, ex diuersis 
nationibus adgregati; post quos ripam oceani item Aesti tenent, 
pacatum hominum genus omnino. - Get. 36). Were some left-behind 
Goths or Gepides one of those "diuersae nationes"? However it were, 
the later Prussians greeted each other with "kails!", their army was 
called "karjis", they bore "kelmis" on their heads, and they 
counted "ains, dwai..." These are just a few examples of Prussian 
Germanisms (Gothicisms?). There's an interesting fragment of a 
Prussian ceremonial language in Jeronymus Meletius' "Von den 
Sudauitern..." which reads: "und wenn die maalzeit entschieden ist, 
und das tuch aufgehoben, so dancken sie dem, der das jährliche 
gedächtniß gehalten hat, und heben an zu sauffen, Kayles, postkayles 
eins periandros"; in Goettinger manuscript "...Kails poskails ains 
par antres". Which phrase is usually reconstructed as an exchange of 
greetings:

- Kails! "Hail!"
- Pats kails, ains par antros! "Hail [your]self, one for the other!"

where pats "self" is the only Baltic word not met in the same 
meaning in Germanic (in fact, it's Gothic –faths M.-i
(Gen. –fadis) "leader of smth" which is the Germanic match). In High 
Gothic, the whole conversation would look approximately like that:

- Hails!
- Silba hails, ains faur antharans!

As we may see, the Goths and the Uidiuarii must have had not too big 
problems in their mutual communication.

As for Greek KYNHGOS "hunter", it literally means "dog driver", 
Greek KYWN (Gen. KYNOS) meaning "dog", having its cognates in 
Lithuanian shuo, shuva, Lettish suns "dog" (Satem language mutation 
PIE [k'] > [sh]) and Gothic hunds "dog" (Germanic Sound Shift
PIE [k'] > [kh]). So, it has nothing to do with Go. kuni. Lithuanian 
kunigas as well as Lettish kungs may have been borrowed either from 
Gothic *kuniggs (later dropping the suffix nasal: Old Lith. 
*kuningas > Mod. Lith kunigas), or, as David Kiltz suggested, from 
Middle High German kunig, künec.

Ualarauans






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