Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/harjaz

Comb

Is there a homophone of this word that means comb? Lollipop (talk)^{(an alt account of —Soap—)} 18:23, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

You might be thinking of Finnish harja (which derives from Baltic, not Germanic). --Tropylium (talk) 15:01, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

I will try to turn up more evidence for the existence of the word in proto-Germanic. I know I've seen the Vimose comb described somewhere ... I thought it was Wikipedia, but it seems not ... with a writeup mentioning that it was the proto-Germanic word for warrior, "but it could also simply be the word for comb." Presumably if this word exists it's a derivative of the word for hair and has no direct descendants, hence no listing in our index of proto-Germanic roots. One bit of evidence in favor of the so-called comb theory is that another comb has been found with a runic inscription on it, and in this case there's no doubt that it is literally just the word for comb. —Soap— 04:43, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Harją?

Could the vimose comb possibly be in the accusative case? A gift to a commander? Perhaps even a pun? I noticed a couple notches at the end that were definitely made by whomever made the inscription. I wonder what, if anything, they mean. Klingt1 (talk) 21:01, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

-z might have been dropped in other inscriptions too, such as the Negau helmet. Assuming the word means warrior or is someone's name, dative or genitive case would make more sense to me than an accusative, but neither of those seem as likely to be spelled harja. —Soap— 06:48, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Harrier?

The etymology given here for the Proto-Germanic word root "harjaz" seems very much like that of the modern English verb harry and its corresponding noun harrier; both in Wiktionary and in the Merriam-Webster.com online dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harry#etymology). ScottS002 (talk) 04:25, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

It does seem that Harry may be several different names that merged together, and that one of them may be identical with the common verb harry ~ harrow. —Soap— 06:51, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Attestation of Harigastiz

@Chuck Entz Harigasti- is actually attested in an inscription likely predating the time of when East Germanic diverged, ie Proto-Germanic. There's an entry on it, but it seems like it cannot be linked to, PGmc being marked as a reconstruction-only language. ᛙᛆᚱᛐᛁᚿᛌᛆᛌ ᛭ Proto-Norsing ᛭ Ask me anything 21:05, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

@Mårtensås: it can be linked to, but not using our linking templates. I fixed it to link to the right entry to get rid of the module error, which was the immediate problem. Changing Proto-Germanic from a reconstruction-only language in the modules would require discussion by those who can weigh the evidence and consider whether it would be worth it in the context of Wiktionary's coverage. I'll leave that to others. Chuck Entz (talk) 21:29, 27 January 2023 (UTC)