[gothic-l] Re: Totila etymology

[edmundfairfax@yahoo.ca [gothic-l]]

The Celtic proto-form that Germanic adopted was apparently a consonant-stem rather than o-stem noun, thus Celtic *riks (gen. sg. *-rigi, etc.) rather than *rigos. Gothic 'reiks' is a consonant-stem, as is the Gaulish counterpart, hence the Latinized forms in -rix rather than -ricus in such Gaulish names as 'Ainorix, Biturix, Uercingetorix,' etc. (see Xavier Delamarre's >Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise<, 2003, pp. 259-260). In his >Handbook of Germanic Etymology< (2003, p. 305), Orel also reconstructs a consonant-stem. 

 The later Latinized Germanic names ending in -ricus likely reflect a shift in nominal class, from the consonant-stem group, which was a dying/dead class, to the productive a-stem class. 

 Edmund

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