Re: YADPT (D=Dutch)

Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

> Elliott Lash wrote:
>
> > It would probably be  "visegou"  pl.  "visegoux"
> >
> > Perhump
> >
> > Elliott.
> >
> > --- Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
> > > What, BTW, would the regular French reflex of Latin
> > > _uisigothum_ (that's acc,
> > > not neuter!) have been? You ought to be using that
> > > anyway!
>
> Don't know about French-- and I don't think the Visigoths hung around there
> very long enroute to Spain.
418-507, Toulouse was the Visigoth capital, and Septimania, the coastal
stretch between the Pyrenees and the Rhône, remained in Visigoth hands till
the Arab conquest in the early eighth century. (And then under nominal Arab
control till the Franks annexed the place in 759.)

> So the word might be a "learned" borrowing in French, thus not very
> deformed.....?  Spanish mostly uses Godo(s), Visigodo(s) to be very precise
> and that looks "learned" too, since IIRC Latin intervocalic /g/ also drops
> in Spanish, but no  exs. spring to mind. Also, I'm not sure, but I don't
> think the Visigoths used that term themselves.
The exact meaning of _visi-_ seems to be unknown - several sources says it may
mean "noble", which sounds like a self-chosen designation. No indication what
language it may be from, which I guess suggests it is indeed Gothic. I've
never heard anything to suggest that the Visigoths did not call themselves
that, but that of course doesn't prove anything.

Hm, the Latin pl seems to be _uisigothae_, which ought to suggest _uisigotha_
as sg, oughtn't it? I know, however, that I've seen _gothus_ as a Latin
singular, so I better confess I'm not entirely clear what's going on.

                                                      Andreas

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