[gothic-l] Gothic Language Corner 12

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

Gothic horses:
 

 The word for 'horse' in not extant in the corpus, but at least two different nouns can be reconstructed with a great degree of certitude.
 

 1) Proto-Germanic *'ehwaz' (masc. a-stem), cf. OE 'eoh,' ON 'jor,' OS 'ehu-,' would yield a Gothic *aihws (masc. a-stem). Indeed, the stem is preserved in the extant Gothic plant-name 'aihwatundi.' These forms descend the common word for horse in Proto-Indo-European, to wit, *'Hekwos'; cf. Latin 'equus,' Greek 'hippos,' Sanskrit 'asvah,' Old Irish 'ech,' Lithuanian 'esva,' etc.
 

 2) Proto-Germanic *'marhaz' (masc. a-stem), cf. OE 'mearh,' ON 'marr,' Old Frisian 'mar,' OHG 'mar(a)h,' would yield a Gothic *'marhs' (masc. a-stem). The stem is preserved in a few Latinized Gothic personal names: e.g. Eterpamara (Jordanes), which is usually analyzed as 'et Erpamara' ('et' = Latin conjunction) = *'Airpamarha,' with 'airpa-' meaning '(light) brown' (cf. ON 'jarpr' = 'chestnut, reddish-brown;' OE 'eorp' = 'dark, dusky, brown, swarthy;' OHG 'erpf' = 'brown, dark-brown, dark'); and with '-marha' an n-stem onomastic element derived from the word for 'horse.' Likewise the Latinized Gothic name Marabadus (Cassiodorus) = *'Marhabadwa-.'
 

 Derived from Proto-Germanic *'marhaz' is *'marhi' (fem. ja-stem) or *'marhijon' (fem. on-stem) = 'mare', cf. OE 'mere,' ON 'merr,' OHG 'mariha / meriha,' which would give a Gothic *'marhi' (fem. ja-stem) or alternatively *'marhjo' (fem. on-stem).
 

 Finally, it might be noted here that the horses of Iron-Age Germania were noticeably smaller than their counterparts of today, judging from archaeological remains: they were in effect largish ponies. As Todd (>The Northern Barbarians, 100 BC - 300 AD< 1987, p. 102) writes,
 

 "the horses also were short and stocky, measuring approximately 1.35m at the shoulder. The animals were probably not much shorter than many in the Roman provinces, but were broader and less graceful. Once again, there is no evidence of imported breeds: larger and heavier animals are first apparent from the later Migration period [i.e., after 400 AD]."
 

 Edmund
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