Re: Rut(h)eni

--- In cybalist@..., "Sergejus Tarasovas" <S.Tarasovas@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... wrote:
> > --- In cybalist@..., S.Tarasovas@... wrote:
>
> >> [snip]
> >> The mentioned part of today's West Ukraine was called VelynI in
> Old
> >> Russian and Wol/yn' in Polish. One of the most prominent cities

of

> >> VolynI was Galic^I (Old Russian), Ga'litza (Medieval Greek),

hence

> >> Ukr. Galic^ina', Medieval Latin Galicia as a second and later

name

> of
> >> this country. There are no plausible etymologies for these two
> >> toponyms, but both of them strongly associate with some Celtic
> >> ethonyms (Wel-, Gal- etc.). What if the remnants of the former
> >> *Celtic* (not Germanic or Slavic) substratum existed in this

part

> of
> >> Carpathian mountains up to the arrival of Slavs?
>
> >
> > And what do you make of Lat-gal- and Sem-gal- then?
> >
>
> The Proto-Baltic root *gal- means 'end' > 'territory', hence *lat-

gal-

> 'living in the basin of Lata (river)', *z'eim-gal- 'living in the
> northern [z^eim- 'cold;winter;north'] end' (indeed one of the
> northernmost Baltic tribes) and even *gal-ind- 'borderes' (1. one

of

> the westernmost; 2. one of the easternmost Baltic tribes).
>
> Sem-gal is something new to me, I think this is some corruption of
> z'eim-gal-.
>
> I guess this Baltic root is hardly related to the Celtic gal- (if
> this root ever existed in Celtic, I'm nearly sure the real form was
> different, I just don't know).
>
> Sergei

The 'lat-enders' and the 'winter-enders'? Well if you say so.
How about this: The Latvian *gal-'s and the Sem- *gal-'s, where *sem-
is the same as in Saami and Suomi (and possibly Samland and Samsø?),
thus "the celts who now speak Baltic" and "the celts who now speak
Fennic"? (the s- for z- I have from Saxo, it might be insurmountable,
but I liked the semantic part of this idea).

Torsten