Gothic names, reconstructions, and derivations?

[Mike]

I'm not an academic and my Gothic is rusty, so with that in mind, I'll try to answer your question as best as I can until someone more knowledgeable chimes in. 

The name 'Friþareikeikeis' (in the genitive) is attested in the calendar fragment we have. The scribe seems to have written '-keis' twice by mistake. There are some issues with Gothic stem vowels in the later period, and it seems like they merging or becoming schwas. I don't remember the details, but the attested names in the Latin sources become very inconsistent with them. So Friþa- is generally understood to be Friþu- with a confused stem vowel. The scribe probably couldn't hear the  With Fritigern, there is an 'i' where we would expect a 'u' and I imagine it's the same issue at play. '-gairns' is fairly straightforward. 

Alaþius seems pretty transparent to me. Ala + þius. I'm not sure what to make of '-vivus', but I've seen some (very hypothetical) attempts to reconstruct it as a naming element. 

Audaþius is straightforward. 

For Airiwulfs, I'm not sure how to take the 'Airi-' element. It shows up in other names though, so it seems common enough. Eriulf, Erileoba, Eraric, Erwig... If you're not picky about your stem vowels, either 'Airi-' or 'Aira-' would make sense. 

For Airimerios, I would reconstruct it as Airimers or Airamers. Of the top of my head, I don't know if 'mer-' should be an i-stem or not. 

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, marja erwin <marja-e at ...> wrote:
>
> A while back I asked about possible reconstructions of the original
> Gothic form of 'Arimerios.' I'm still wondering about that, and about
> some other names from the later fourth century:
> 
> Widely-accepted reconstructions:
> 
> *Friþugairns for 'Fritigernus'
> 
> Some hypothetical reconstructions:
> 
> *Alaþius for 'Alatheus' and 'Alavivus' - this assumes deliberate
> reclamation of þius, perhaps to contrast with reiks.
> 
> *Audaþius for 'Odotheus' - similar considerations apply
> 
> *Airiwulfs for 'Eriulf' - early wolf?
> 
> Still looking:
> 
> 'Arimerios'
> 
> 'Fravitta'
> 
> Probably not Gothic, although if someone is familiar with Sarmatian,
> Alanic, or Ossetian, it would be nice to comment:
> 
> 'Saphrax'
> 
> 'Farnobius'
> 
> [Farna has some religious significance - maybe favor, in Ossetic,
> right?]
>


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