Germanic Substrate Hypothesis - Controversy

Controversy

Many of Hawkins's purported non-etymologies are controversial. One obvious way to refute the Germanic substrate hypothesis is to find Indo-European etymologies for the words on Hawkins's list. This process continues, but several cited as examples by Hawkins can likely be eliminated. For example, it is generally agreed that helmet represents IE *kel-, "a concealing covering" (cf. Thracian zelmis - "skin", Old Prussian salmis - "helm"). East relates to IE *h₂eus-ro-, "dawn". Some of the words may have Indo-European derivations that are simply not well preserved in other Indo-European languages. For example, it has been suggested that wife is related to Tocharian B kwipe, "pubes; vulva", from a reconstructed root *gʷíh₂bʰo-. Other possible etymologies include:

• ebb: from *h₂epo "off, away"
• north: from *nr̥tro- which is in turn from *ner- "under, on the left," north being to one's left when facing the rising sun.
• south: from *sunto- which is in turn from *sun-, a variant of *säwel- "the sun"
• west: from *westo- which is in turn from *wes-, reduced form of *wespero "evening"
• shield: from *skel- "to cut"
• stork: from *str̥go- which is the zero-grade form of *ster- "stiff"
• bear: "the brown one" (a taboo avoidance term, or taboo deformation) from *bʰer- "bright, brown"
• drink: from *dʰreng-, presentive of *dʰreg- "to draw, glide"
• groom: (as in bridegroom) from *(dh)ghm̥on which is the zero-grade suffixed form of *dʰgʰom- "earth". The word bridegroom derives from Middle English bridegome and Old English brȳdguma, a compound of brȳd 'bride' and guma 'man'. The intrusive r in Modern English bridegroom is due to contamination with the word groom (of different meaning), the origin of which is unknown.
• ship: from *skei-, a root originally meaning "to cut", or compare Greek σκάπτω = "I dig", referring to a dugout boat.
• strand: from *ster-, meaning "wide, flat". (Note, however, Finnish sataranta)
• king: from Old English cyning. The cyn- part is possibly cognate with Modern English "kin" and related to Latin genus, etc.

Similarly, the word "bear" may not be unique to Germanic languages. In Russian, a bear's lair is berloga, sometimes etymologized as "the lair of ber". Others hold that berloga could be derived from a proto-Slavic word for 'swamp' that also influenced the originally West Slavic origin of the city name Berlin as a "town built on swampy grounds". A number of Slavic languages have cognates of medved for "bear", which meant "honey-eater" < *medʰu + *ed- (though was later taken to mean "honey-knower" by folk etymology). This suggests that a possible ancient Slavic word ber may have been replaced by a euphemism (although the older Slavic word predating ber for a bear was "oster" as in the Oster River in Ukraine). However, supporters of the Germanic substrate hypothesis such as Max Vasmer explain the obvious relation between berloga and the Germanic word for 'bear' by the fact that early Old Norse influences on East Slavic languages cannot be disregarded — see the prevalent Normanist theory regarding the Varangian origin of the Rus people from Scandinavia, from whom also the name of Russia is derived.

Calvert Watkins's 1969 appendix of Indo-European roots in the American Heritage Dictionary listed several roots that were believed to be unique to Germanic at that time. More recent editions have substantially reduced the number of roots claimed to be uniquely Germanic.

More recent treatments of Proto-Germanic tend to reject or simply omit discussion of the Germanic substrate hypothesis. Joseph B. Voyles's Early Germanic Grammar makes no mention of the hypothesis, nor do many recent publications on the Germanic language family.

Nonetheless, the hypothesis remains popular in some circles, such as the Leiden school of historical linguistics. The first etymological dictionary of any language to systematically take the hypothesis into its discussions is the new Dutch dictionary influenced by the thinking of the Leiden group, which is currently under production: Marlies Philippa et al. (ed), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, Amsterdam University press, in 4 volumes, 2003-2009.