Re: The Welsh are from Venus, not Venice

----- Original Message -----

From: Christopher Gwinn

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 2:30 AM

Subject: [cybalist] Re: The Wends and the Venedi

Chris writes:

 

Breton Gwened may come from Ueneti, but Welsh Gwynedd must come from *Uened-o(-t-a) or *Ueneii-o(-t-a) and not from Ueneti (-dd- is only produced by Common Celtic -d- or by  -ii-o/a. Common Celtic -t- produces -d- in Welsh).

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Your objection is absolutely valid. It's all too easy to take the equation Gwened = Gwynedd for granted. Gwynedd could then be an independent derivative of *wen-. As an alternative to your possible protoforms I'd like to propose Proto-Brythonic *wenés-o- or *wenés-jo-. I think they'd also have developed into Welsh Gwynedd (correct me if I'm wrong), and they'd have the advantage of being based on an attested IE word (*wen-os/*wen-es-).

 

Piotr