Wulfila, Alareiks, Aþanagilds

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Abdoer-Ragmaan Lombard"
<manielombard at ...> wrote:
>
> Thanks, LN!
> 
> What do you mean by "consonant stem partly assimilated to the a-stem 
> declension"?

I just meant that it was originally a consonant stem, but has come to
agree with the a-stems in some inflections: gen.sg. reikis; dat.pl.
reikam.

> How would this affect Alareiks? Alareiks, gen. Alareikis, dat. 
> Alareik (or Alareika?), acc. Alareik 

I would guess that it would be declined like the word 'reiks', thus
dat. 'reik'.
 
> Aþanagild: Aþanagilds, gen. Aþanagildis, dat. Aþanagilda, acc. 
> Aþanagild?

I think so, although, regarding the proposed etymology, if the root
vowel was originally 'e', then ON 'gildr' implies a following 'i' or
'j' in Proto-Norse, otherwise it would have been ON 'gjaldr' (cf.
'gjald' "tribute", 'gjalda' "repay"), but presumably the root is the
same, whatever the original sense of the naming element.

> Would you also treat Þaúrismoþs and names ending in -"mers" as a-
> stems?
> Þaúrismoþs, gen. Þaúrismodis, dat. Þaúrismoda, acc. Þaúrismoþ?

For -moþs, we have the evidence of the adjective (a-stem) and the
personal name recorded in the dative as Alamoda.  So I think you're
right there.  As for -mers-, the adjective was apparently a ja/jo-stem
in Gothic: þishvah þatei wailameri, neut.nom.sg. (Php 4:8); cf. OE
mæ´re.  (But the Thorsberg scabbard end-clasp inscription has an
i-stem 'wajemariz'.)  But Latin spellings of these Gothic names tend
to have -mer, -mar, -mirus, don't they?  And was there one with
-meres?  The usual forms anyway suggest that, as a naming element, it
wasn't a ja/jo-stem (compare Augis, Hisarnis) but either an a-stem or
an i-stem.  In OE, in spite of the ja/jo adjective 'mæ´re', names have
a reduced 'mer', treated as an a-stem.  Gothic i-stem names don't
usually have any trace of the stem vowel represented in Latin
spellings: Audoinus, Cunigastus, Daroin, Nanduin -- unless it's
present in Anagastes and Ardaburius (?*Hardubaur).

> Tarbigildus: (Greutung)

I wonder if the 1st element in this is related to the 1st element in
Terwingi (with late Latin confusion of medial 'b' and 'v').

> Widargildus: ahd. "Widargelt" 'der Wiedergelter, Rächer'

The Old English poem Widsith names one Wiþergield among the Gothic heroes.

LN

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