Re: Gemination in Celtic

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 56385
Date: 2008-04-01

On 2008-04-01 20:15, tgpedersen wrote:

> Is Tutta a Germanic name?

It's OE, at any rate (attested AD 842), as are e.g. Tota and Totta. The
last two could be hypocoristic forms of anything beginning with Torht-
(e.g. Torhtwine, Torhthelm, Torhtmund, Torhtwald, ...). The easiest
method of forming a pet form of a name in OE consisted in truncating it,
simplifying heavy clusters, if any, and substituting easier sounds for
more difficult ones; then optionally geminating the final consonant and
appending a weak-noun ending (-a for boys, -e for girls). Actually,
Tutta might be not only Germanic, but even your own. A young Thurstan
could be Tutta to his family and friends.

Piotr