Re: "Wife" (was: Homosexuality etc.)

Hello,

> Yeah, North Germanic decided to go with the widespread IE
> root kwen-, which
> surfaces as "queen" in English and I forget what in Skt, but it means
> "goddess".  This probably got somewhat pejorated too, down
> from "noblewoman" or the like to just "woman".  In Gothic it
> meant "wife", oddly enough.
Is it really *_kwen_? I mean, I'd rather expect *_gwen_ in the
traditional reconstruction, based also on Slavic *_z^ena_ rather than
*_c^ena_, or OIr _ben_ rather than *_cen_ or whatever.

re wife, JRRT:

'Elbereth was the usual name in S. of the Vala, called in Q. Varda, "the
Exalted." It is more or less the equivalent of Q. Elentári, "Star-queen"
(Vol. I, p. 394); but bereth actually meant "spouse," and was used of
one who is "queen" as spouse of a king. [1] Varda was spouse of Manwe,
"the Elder King," chief of the Valar.'

[1] Cf. E. queen: originally an ancient word for wife or woman, already
in Old English usually reserved for the king's wife. (But not so in any
of the related languages.)'

See, it's not even OT :-)

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

Is mall a mharcaicheas am fear a bheachdaicheas
                 --Scottish proverb

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