Old Celtic languages

Le guerrier gaulois de première ligne
Ce que l'onomastique peut nous dire : Nomen est omen.
Il y a un ensemble de noms de Gaulois, formés différemment, mais dont la signification récurrente semble désigner les guerriers de première ligne dans un dispositif militaire d'attaque, « ceux qui sont à l'avant ». Les auteurs anciens ont décrit à de multiples reprises l'apparence des Gaulois avant l'engagement : les plus braves en tête qui hurlent et font des grimaces pour impressionner l'adversaire. Il était évidemment prestigieux d'avoir été en première ligne dans une bataille, d'où l'idionyme-titre qui leur était ensuite donné. Voici quelques noms de Gaulois 'qui se tiennent en avant' dans la bataille. La plupart sont construits avec le préfixe Ari-, Are-, Ar- 'de devant, en avant', issu d'un ancien *pari- < *prHi- comparable au sanskrit purā 'devant' ou à l'allemand Vor-.

The "Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois - A Dictionary of Gaulish Nominal Stems. Vol. I Ab-/Iχs(o)-", Editions Les Cent Chemins, Paris 2019, 398 pp., 39€, is available at Amazon :
https://www.amazon.fr/Dictionnaire-th%C3%A8mes-nominaux-gaulois-Ab/dp/1798050404/ref=sr_1_9?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=delamarre+dictionnaire&qid=1556952062&s=gateway&sr=8-9

Throughout history, the Druids have always been seen as sorcerers who had a strong bond with nature. Ancestral knowledge holders within Celtic society, directed all religious activity as the highest authority linked to the gods, practiced human sacrifices and festivals organized as Imbolc, Beltaine, Lugnasad or Samain, etc.. all aspects of which are discussed in this article.

ABSTRACT. -  Four etymological notes : 1. The word αουα of the inscription of Cavaillon, G-121, rather means 'grandmother' than 'granddaughter'. 2. A stem Adu-, Atu-, Attu-of the Gaulish anthroponymy and theonymy could represent the reflex of a Pre-Celtic *pōdu-, to be connected to Lithuanian púodas, Latvian pods, Germanic *fata- 'pot'. 3. The Borienus deus of a dedicace of Aquitania, reflected in the toponymy of France, is analysed as *Bō-rēno- 'the Flow (Abundance) of Cows'. 4. The analysis of  the mythical river  Ἠριδανός, Eridanus by a Celtic *e(p)eri-danos 'Western-, Back- River' finds a support in a proposition of Kretschmer to see in the name of the Dniepr-Danaper an Old-Iranian compound name *Dānu-apara- 'Hintererfluss'.

Ogam is an ingenious writing system, consisting only of strokes and notches arranged along a stem-line. As a graphic system, it is among the most abstract and non-iconic writing systems ever devised for human communication. The letters consist of bundles of one to five identical straight parallel strokes, arranged in four classes or groups. Ogam is most commonly found on the arrises of objects, typically on standing stones. Slightly under 500 ogam stones are extant today, chiefly in Ireland, but also in Wales, Scotland, England and the Isle of Man. To this can be added around two dozen portable objects. Originally invented perhaps in the 4 th century to write the Primitive Irish language, the 5 th-7 th centuries are considered to be the classical period of Ogam writing. However, the knowledge of Ogam was never lost and the tradition of its use continues until the modern day. In the high middle ages, it was even occasionally adopted into manuscript writing. This volume of the AELAW series offers an introduction to what is known about this writing system and how to interpret inscriptions in Ogam. A census of the inscrip¬tions known today and a concise bibliography round off the volume. The book contains 2 maps, 8 tables and 29 figures.
Order: https://puz.unizar.es/2703-ogam-languaje-writing-epigraphy.html

Un moyen pour étudier la civilisation celtique est l'onomastique, c'est à dire l'étude des noms propres que les Celtes donnaient aux personnes, aux dieux et aux lieux. On peut, grâce à la comparaison avec les langues celtiques médiévales insulaires, irlandais, gallois, breton, en restituer le sens. A titre d'exemple on se penchera ici sur un ensemble de noms de Gaulois, formés différemment, mais dont la signification récuttente semble désigner des guerriers de première ligne dans un dispositif militaire d'attaque, "ceux qui sont à l'avant".

For know the controversial history of the Druids in the Celtic world, will investigate the sources of its origin, through stories of classic texts and medieval legends of Gaul, Britain and Ireland. His role in Celtic society surpassed the religious sphere, covering war, politics, medicine and the law. Almost unknown is the participation of women in this institution.

There is a recurring root of the Gaulish onomastics which forms the stems Lipo-, Lipuco-, Iepont-, and, with the spelling <ae >  rendering ē, Laepo-, Laepico-, Laeponio-, that has been linked to the I.-E. root *leikw- 'to leave, to quit'. Two funerary inscriptions of proconsular Africa contain the names of two children : Maculipus in Mactar and Maportulip(us) in Dougga. These are two Gaulish names which must be read *Magu-lipo-s 'abandoned child' and *Mapo-ritu-lipo-s ' son abandoned on a passway', given by Gaulish groups, probably demobilized soldiers settled localy.

RESUME.  Etude de quatre noms galates : Le chef celte Kομοντόριος serait à analyser *Com-onto-rios avec une souche ont- issue de i.-e. ponth2- ; les fondateurs de la Galatie anatolienne Λεοννόριος et Λουτούριος ont des noms gaulois qu'il faut restituer *Līṷono-rīg-ios et *Lūtu-rīg-ios ; les Tολιστοβογιοι sont à analyser *To-listo-bog-ioi  'Briseurs de Palais'.

ABSTRACT. Study of four Galatians names : The Celtic chief Kομοντόριος should be analyzed as *Com-onto-rios, with a nominal root ont- from I.-E. ponth2- ; the founders of the Anatolian Galatia Λεοννόριος and Λουτούριος have Celtic names that must be re-established as *Līṷono-rīg-ios and *Lūtu-rīg-ios ; the Tολιστοβογιοι should be analyzed as *To-listo-bog-ioi  'Palace-Destroyers'.

It is well known that the Insular Celtic languages utilize a class of verbal abstracts known as “verbal nouns” to perform the functions fulfilled by infinitives and supines in other Indo-European languages, yet in many ways the Celtic verbal noun remains enigmatic. The present study examines the historical morphology of the verbal noun in the earliest Celtic language for which we have a meaningful literature, namely Old Irish, in order to distinguish the derivational patterns that lie behind their formations and to clarify the place of the Celtic verbal noun within the development of Indo-European.
A multifaceted approach to defining the Old Irish verbal noun is advocated in order to capture its systemic character within the grammar of the language, taking into consideration the interplay of morphological, semantic, and syntactic factors. It is concluded that the verbal noun, while possessing limited verbal features, is not infinitival in Old Irish; it is primarily and fundamentally a substantive, distinguishable from an ordinary abstract only in certain aspects that depend on its special associative relationship with the verb.
The body of the study concentrates on morphological concerns. An overview of Old Irish verbal compounding is presented first, followed by a discussion of verbal-noun formation. Five types of verbal nouns can be discerned in Old Irish, based on the derivational relationship that each bears to its verb: 1. deradical formations corresponding to primary verbs; 2. deverbative formations, mostly from secondary verbs; 3. source nouns of denominative verbs; 4. deadjectival formations to cognate factitive verbs (also denominative formations to cognate denominative verbs); and 5. suppletive verbal nouns.
The morphological details of the verbal nouns that make up this study are systematically analyzed in accordance with the above framework. The accompanying commentary covers sundry issues of etymology, historical phonology, morphology, semantics, and any other details of interest elicited by the material.
The concluding chapter considers the placement of the Celtic verbal noun within the wider Indo-European context. While previous studies have posited the existence of infinitival formations in the Indo-European proto-language and have concluded that the verbal noun of the Insular Celtic languages must be an innovation, it is argued here that the systematic alignment of primary verbal-noun formations with primary verbs and secondary verbal-noun formations with secondary verbs, which is characteristic of Old Irish verbal-noun morphology, is best explained in terms of inheritance. This implies that Proto-Indo-European itself possessed only verbal nouns, and that the infinitival formations of the daughter languages arose independently.

On the occasion of our twentieth review, it was our intention to devote ourselves exclusively to present new perspectives regarding various pre-Roman names documented in Hispanic territory as well as in southern Gaul, many of them published for the first time several decades ago.
However, as in the past, we find ourselves compelled to present once again some of the results we reached in previous texts, which, by either ignorance or bad faith, were not properly acknowledged.

in: Ad Fontes! Festschrift für Gerhard Dobesch zum fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag am 15. September 2004 dargebracht von Kollegen, Schülern und Freunden. Unter der Ägide der Wiener Humanistischen Gesellschaft herausgegeben von Herbert Heftner und Kurt Tomaschitz, Wien: Eigenverlag 2004, 757–772

Traces of the dual number may be identified in the Gaulish language on the basis of the historical-comparative method. It is suggested that the Gaulish form SUIOREBE represents an instrumental dual with the sociative meaning 'with two sisters'. The conclusion is that the Gaulish SUIOREBE contains the dual base SUIORE-(< IE. *swesore 'two sisters') accompanied by the dual ending-BE (< IE. *-bhēm).

in: Interpretierte Eisenzeiten. Fallstudien, Metho¬den, Theorie. Tagungsbeiträge der 1. Linzer Gespräche zur interpretativen Eisenzeitarchäologie. Hrsg. Raimund Karl, Jutta Leskovar [= Studien zur Kulturgeschichte von Oberösterreich 18], Linz: Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum 2005, 229–240

This paper builds on previous explanations of the Gaulish verb au̯u̯ot / αυουωτ - and its regional variations - attested in several inscriptions from modern France. In order to account for this obscure verb, I will examine comparative evidence, mostly data from the Insular node of the Celtic branch and from the Germanic branch, as well as with other Indo-European daughter-languages, in some instances. Ultimately, this article's objective is to offer evidence for the existence of a different way of conjugating the preterit tense in Gaulish, which stems from the ablaut processes used to conjugate the preterit in Proto-Indo-European - a shift from the full-grade to the o-grade in the singular and to the zero-grade in the plural - somewhat similar to the ā-preterit developed by the ancestors of the Brythonic and Goidelic languages.

The Gaulish name Amretoutus from an inscription of Arlon, confirmed by a potter's stamp Amrit[ of Amiens, wrongly corrected in Ambitoutus, leads to a segmentation *An-mrit-outu- 'Fear-Gods', and to retrieve a stem *-mrito- from IE *mr-to- 'dead' > 'mortal, human'. The sequence *mrito- regularly evolved into brito-, source of the name of the Belgic tribes Brittī, Britannī, the last Celtic invaders of Great-Britain, who so designated themselves as 'The Men, The Humans'.

RÉSUMÉ Le nom gaulois Amretoutus d'une inscription d'Arlon, confirmé par une sigillée d'Amiens Amrit[, corrigé à tort en Ambitoutus, conduit à proposer une segmentation *An-mrit-outu-'Craint-les-Dieux' et à isoler un thème *-mrito-issu d'i.-e. *m-to-'mort' > 'mortel, humain'. La séquence *mrito-a régulièrement évolué en brito-; ce thème est à la source du nom des tribus belges Brittī, Britannī qui ont envahi la Grande-Bretagne, se désignant donc comme 'Les Hommes'.

In the Early Middle Ages (9th-12th centuries) the vikings came to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man to plunder, trade and settle. During this period language contact took place between Norsemen speaking Old Norse (ON) and Irishmen speaking Old/Middle Irish (OI/MI). Studying this phenomenon requires us to take into account the impact on both sides.
It is well known that ON contributed several hundred loanwords to the OI/MI lexicon. By contrast, about 40 Irish nouns (plus about a dozen less certain examples) and a hundred Irish place- and personal names in the Old Icelandic sagas and poetry and the modern West Scandinavian languages Icelandic, Faroese and West Norwegian demonstrate the OI/MI contribution to the ON lexicon. Though the corpus of Irish loanwords in ON is small, several factors involving phonological interference demand special attention.

in: Interpretierte Eisenzeiten. Die erfundenen Kelten – Mythologie eines Begriffes und seine Verwendung in Archäologie, Tourismus und Esoterik. Tagungsbeiträge der 4. Gespräche zur interpretativen Eisenzeitarchäologie. Raimund Karl, Jutta Leskovar, Stefan Moser (Hrsg.) [= Studien zur Kulturgeschichte von Oberösterreich 31], Linz: Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum 2012, 293–301

Nesta crónica, revisitamos diversos NNL e NNP atestados nas fontes antigas, que, com a exclusão de quatro casos — saico, siCounin, śeCena e  / TAMVSIENSI —, já foram alvo de comentários nossos em textos anteriores.
In this review, we analyse several personal and place names attested in ancient sources, which, with the exception of four cases — saico, siCounin, śeCena and  / TAMVSIENSI — have already been the subject of our comments in previous texts.

First mentioned in February 5, 1693/4, when it stood in the ruins of St. Dogmael’s Abbey, Pembrokeshire, Wales, St. Dogmael’s Stone – located today inside St. Thomas’s Church – was considered ‘The Ogham Rosetta Stone’ because it is a Bilingual Stone, which contains the same inscription in two different scripts: Roman Letters and Ogham. This article presents a systematization of the main information related to this monument and an analysis of it, pointing out its importance to the Ogham Studies.