Re: Lithuanian Diviriks - Celtic substrate?

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 1243
Date: 2000-01-29

 
----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft
To: cybalist@eGroups.com
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2000 11:25 AM
Subject: [cybalist] Re: Lithuanian Diviriks - Celtic substrate?

Christopher what an interesting question.

> I have often wondered about possible  Celtic borrowings in the
Baltic, and this one definitely has me wondering:
> 
> The 13th century Volynija Chronicle mentions a Lithuanian divinity
named > Diviriks - the name has not been translated in any of the
sources I have > read, and has been labelled "mysterious" (the name
might be a byname of > Perkunas). I know that if the name is broken
down into Divi-riks, the second > part of the name seems to look like a
relative of Gaulish Rix - which > shouldn't naturally exist in
Lithuanian.
> 
> The name grabbed my attention because there is a Celtiberian name -
likely a > divine name - Deiuoreiks "God-king" (Deiuo "god" reiks
"king"). Is it > possible that Diviriks is the same name, borrowed by
the Lithuanians - > perhaps through a Germanic source - or can it be
possible  that Celts might > have entered the Baltics during their time
of expansion in the Iron Age (I am > thinking also of a classical
author - need to look the name - who claimed > that soma people in the
Baltics spoke the same language as the British - it > is likely just a
false story - but could there be any truth to it at all?).

Interesting thought.  I came across, many years ago a book on Myths and
Legends of the Celtic People (really a book of Irish myth and legend). 
In it they suggested that Formorians was etymologically related to
Pomorz - the origins of the Pomeranian Coast.

There are also suggestions that the Attacotti in Scotland spoke a
non-Celtic language.

Bits of stray evidence that may mean northing at all.
Riki < *ri:ki 'kingdom' and rikijs 'lord' < *ri:kjas do exist in Baltic. They are very well attested in Old Prussian, and their phonetic form and meaning point rather clearly to Gothic as the source. It seems that the Goths (during their stay in northern Poland) acted as intermediaries in transmitting Celtic loanwords in Germanic to the Balts. This scenario is far more likely than direct contacts between Celts and Balts. The equation of Fomorians with Pomeranians is based on superficial similarity -- a typical popular etymology. BTW Pomeranians were not Balts but the Slavic tribes inhabiting what is now northwestern Poland -- it's a Slavic name meaning "Seaside Folk".
 
Piotr