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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: German and Germanic (was: Re: Development of Slavic Languages?
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Date: Tue, 20 Jun 1995 23:36:33 GMT
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In article <DAC8rF.92I@statsci.com>,
Peter Schumacher <peter@statsci.com> wrote:

>Someone has probably already said this, but "deutsch", "Teuton", and I
>would venture "Duits", come from the Germanic root "diut" = "the people".
>
>This seems to be not uncommon. The Welsh word for "Welsh" also means "the
>people". It's "cymru" or something like that.

*sigh*  Something like that.  "Cymru" is Wales.  The Welsh are "y Cymry",
singular "y Cymro" "the Welshman" (Welshman is "Cymraes").  These words 
have nothing to do with any Celtic roots meaning "people."  Rather, they 
are derived from a form something like *kombroga-, from *kon- (cf. Latin 
con-) and *broga- (cf. Mod. Welsh "bro" "region, territory").  The 
etymological meaning of Cymry, then, is something like "co-territorians" 
(usually glossed as "fellow countrymen").  Not the same thing as "the 
people" at all.

The PIE root represented by Germanic *theud- is often thought to underly
Welsh teulu "family," though this derivation is problematic.  A more
secure cognate is Irish "tua" (mod. spelling) as in "Tuatha D/e Danann."
It no longer means "people" either. 
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
