Intro and question about Lombardic...

[Nathan Bellomy-McKnight]

Hi everybody, 

I've been subscribed to Gothic-L for a long time, but as far as I can recall
I've never posted anything. Ironically, my first posting isn't about Gothic,
but about another old Germanic language. I recently read about the Pernik
Sword. It was found in Bulgaria in the 1920s I think, and has the following
inscription: +IHININIhVILPIDHINIhVILPN+

In the last couple of years, a researcher claimed to have identified the
language as Austro-Bavarian, Lombardic, or another early West Germanic
language. The translation they give is "I do not await eternity, I am
eternity." But since the paper isn't available online, I'm not sure of the
intended parsing for such a translation. 

Assuming a West Germanic language with "hvil" for E. "while"/G. "weile", I
would guess the inscription is supposed to be parsed as: "I hini ni hvilpid
hini hvilpn". This would make -id and -n pretty typical Germanic verb
inflections. But what's that p doing in there? -pid and -pn would be
surprising verb endings I think. Could hvilp- be the root word? Wouldn't
that make it less likely to be cognate with "while/weile"? Are there any
potential cognates in other Germanic languages for somehting like this?
Maybe: whilpan, whilvan, wilvan, vilfid, whilfed, völvon (Volvo!)...??? Am I
barking up the wrong tree? Regardless though, if -id and -n are verb
inflections, makes hvilpid sound like a past tense to me. Does anybody know
if "hini" has cognates with a meaning similar to "eternity"? 

Personally, I think hvilp- (if that's the correct parsing) is more likely
cognate with "wolf" (cf. PIE *wlp-), making the p in hvilp- an archaism that
was dropped in other Germanic languages. That would make Lombardic: I hini
ni hvilpid hini hvilpn. Something like "I am not wolfish, I am wolfen" or
"I'm not wolf*like*, I *am* a wolf". In that case, Lombardic "hini" would
probably be cognate with "hine", the Anglo-Saxon accusative case of "he". Or
maybe hini functions like German heiße (Swedish heter, Icelandic heiþur) =
"my name is", so Hvilpid would be a proper name (is Úlfið a name?), similar
to Scandinavian Ulfs, Gothic Wulfilas, or German Wolfgang, giving the
sentence a meaning akin to "Wolfgang's not just my name, I really am a
wolf!" (Jag heter inte Ulfs, jag heter ulf / Ich heiße nicht Wolfgang, ich
heiße Wolf) Not a half bad thing to inscribe on your sword if you ask me...
Totally speculative, of course.

Any thoughts? 

Best,
Nathan McKnight
www.nathanmcknight.com

Nathan Bellomy
 Assistant Editor, Science
McGraw-Hill School Solutions Group
 8787 Orion Place | Columbus, OH 43240
 Phone: 614-430-4990 | Fax: 614-430-4403
nathan_bellomy at mcgraw-hill.com 
 
The difference between 
theory and practice
is smaller in theory 
than it is in practice.  

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