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The name of an Indo-European god of thunder and/or the oak may be reconstructed as '''
★ ''' or '''
★ '''.
Another name for the thunder god contains an onomatopoeic root ''
★ '', continued in Gaulish ''Taranis'' and Hittite ''Tarhunt''. Germanic ''
★ Þunraz'' (Thor) (Þórr) is from a stem ''
★ '' "thunder".

Contents

Derivatives

Etymology

Notes

See also

Derivatives

★ Lithuanian ''Perkūnas'', Latvian ''Pērkons'', Old Prussian ''Perkūns'', the god of thunder

★ Old Russian ''Perunъ'', Belarusian ''Pyarun'', Polish ''Perkun'' or ''Perun'', the god of thunder

★ Finnish ''Perkele'', Mordvinic ''Pur'gine-paza'', assumed early loan from Indo-European, probably from Baltic

★ possibly Albanian ''Perëndi'', the god of thunder

★ possibly root cognate, Sanskrit ''Parjanya'', the god of rainstorms

★ Thracian Περχων
Perkūnas' wife was named Perkūnija or Perkūnė (Przeginia, Perperuna). Compare also Icelandic Fjörgyn, (with Germanic p->f sound shift) the mother of Thor, the Norse thunder god.

Etymology

''
★ '' is reconstructed on the basis of ''Perkūnas''. ''Parjanya'' is no exact cognate, see below. The labiovelar is reconstructed due to a Centum word for "oak", "coniferous tree", or "mountain", "coniferous mountain forest", ''
★ ''. Here also, the labiovelar is non-trivial, and indeed singular in the sequence ''
★ '', its justification being in Latin ''quercus'' "oak", the result of an assimilatory Italo-Celtic sound law changing ''
★ '' to ''
★ '' (compare ''quinque'', Irish ''cóic'' vs. Sanskrit '' "five", ''coquo'' vs. Sanskrit ''pacati'' "to cook"). Celtic ''
★ Ercunia'', if cognate, did not partake in the assimilation, advising towards a cautious reconstruction of ''
★ ''.
''
★ '', then, is the god of the ''
★ '', comparable to Germanic ''
★ Wodanaz'' being the god of the ''
★ wōþuz'', by virtue of the same suffix ''
★ ''.
The original meaning of this u-stem '' appears to be concept of an oak, a coniferous forest, a mountain forest, or a wooded mountain:

★ "oak": Latin ''quercus'', Old High German ''fereheih'' "oak", Celtic Hercynia silva. The oak is quite a common motif in myths about Perkūnas. Cognates include Sanskrit ''parkatī'' "fig tree", the Venetian and Celtiberian ethnonyms ''Quarquēni'' and ''Querquerni'', the Ligurian ''Nymphis Percernibus'', Old Norse ''fjörr'' "tree", Anglo-Saxon ''furh'' (Modern English ''fir''), Old Norse ''fura'', Old High German forha (Modern German ''Föhre'') "pine tree", Old Norse ''fyri'', Old High German ''forh-ist'' (Modern German ''Forst'') "pine forest", Old High German ''Fergunna'' (the Erzgebirge), Anglo-Saxon ''firgen'' "wooded height", Gothic ''fairguni'' "mountain".

★ A possibly related word '' for "rock" or "mountain" is reconstructed from Hittite ''peruna'' "rock", Sanskrit ''parvata'' "mountain" (Parvati, daughter of Himavant), Thracian ''per(u)'' "rock".
Fittingly, there is a sanctuary to Perun located on a height called ''Perynь'' near Novgorod and the Pirin mountain range in south-western Bulgaria.
As seen from the cognates above, the name of the thunder god is only to be ascertained in Baltic and Slavic, but mythological connections of the thunderer with oaks, or wooded mountains may be reconstructed to be associated with the Proto-Indo-European word.
Further etymologization was attempted with reference to a verbal root '' "to strike", in reference to the thunderbolt and the violent nature of a thunder god in general.
This is well attested (it survives for example in ''press''). A velar extension '' is known from Armenian ''harkanem'' "felling trees, slaying", Old Irish ''orcaid'' "slay" (e.g. in ''Orgetorix'') and Hittite ''harganu-'' "destroy". Parjanya is consistent with such a voiced velar, and rather than being cognate to ''
★ '' appears to be an independent derivation from this root.
A closer relationship of the verbal root to the theonym is not apparent, because of the missing ''
★ '' extension, unknown as an Indo-European suffix, and the semantic distance between "slaying" and "tree" or "mountain".
According to Julius Pokorny (''IEW''), Russian ''Perunъ'' "thunder god" and ''perun'' "thunderbolt" which likewise lack the velar element are indeed influenced by the root discussed, the activity of "striking down" being associated with the Balto-Slavic theonym by popular etymology.

Notes

# Frisk, Greek Etymological Dictionary [1]
# termed "Herrschersuffix" by Wolfgang Meid, ''Beiträge zur Namenforschung'' 8 (1957).

See also

★ Parjanya

★ Tarhunt

★ Thor's oak

★ Indra

★ Thunderstone