Goths, Naming and Ablaut

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/14/01 9:45:22 PM Mountain Standard Time, X99Lynx at aol.com
writes:

> Now, with all that said, it still seems possible to me that Greek originally
> gave a name to the historical Goths who later appear on the Danube coming
> from the direction of the Ukraine in the early 3d century AD.

-- since there's no evidence that the Goths ever called themselves anything
but Goths, parsimony would indicate that this was "always" their word for
themselves as an ethnic group, at the next stage up from the various tribal
identifiers like the Amals, the Teurings, etc.

Incidentally, I'm not aware of any evidence that the Gothic tribes who
appeared on the Danube in the 3rd century came via the Ukraine; the Gothic
tradition was that the split into eastern and western groups occurred in the
course of their migration southward from the Vistula basin.

Given the extreme mobility of Germanic groups in that era, there's no reason
to doubt it that I can see.