New File Uploaded (Neologisms)

[Arthur Jones]

Hails Frijandeis,
   
  Thiudans gamelida:
   
  "badus, mwa.", "badwa, fo." .-Shouldn't we mark them as 'poetic'? I'd doubt that they still existed in the spoken language in the time of the Bible translation." 
  "...Koebler has: *badwo, germ., F.: nhd. Kampf, Streit, Personal Name [recorded ca.]
  100[AD]."
   
  That may be right, although I would like to see more evidence before concluding that such a right venerable word (shows a common source with the Celtic cousins, that does) had died out by the second half of the Fourth Century. 
   
  The General/King Totila probably was actually named Badwila or Baudila, according to Wolfram (p. 353), Th. Burns, "Ostrogoths" (p. 175), and Cassiodorus' Variae 4.12, 46. "fighter" or "warrior" would seem to be the meaning. Also, a later manuscript listed one "Marabad" (ca. 510-520 AD) was a comes in Provence.
   
  Both of those names were given well after the Bible translation, in Totila's case some two hundred years. 
   
  Next, --and this is pure speculation on my part-- may have been a nickname given him by troops from some of the federated tribes that were undergoing the zweite Lautverschiebung, e.g., Langobards, Alemanni, Skirians, Pannonians. they might have called him "Little Death", or dauthila, as a word game on Baudila (which, if we consider it, may raise other questions of whether the "d" in Baudila was pronounced as an eth or simply a "d" at that time). Hence, Dauthila > Dodila > Totila. 
   
  Only 100 years later, some Langobardic smith created the Pernik Sword, which says
   
  "IH INI NI HUIL PID * IH INI HUIL PN". 
   
  "I, within, not the hour await * I, within, the hour am."
   
  Note the unvoiced consonant, from "b" (beidan, bin) to "p". In that environment, the change --including a deferential word game-- from B--D to D--th thence T--T was a rather short throw. Even a Langobard javelin could do the trick. ;-)
   
  Thuk galja,
   
  Aizamunds


ARTHUR A. JONES


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