Re: [tied] Arya-

Piotr wrote:

> I wonder how good the formal match between <Arioma[:]nus> and <Eremon>
> really is. I gather that the relation is not unprecedented though not
> quite regular either.

Well. all that I can offer is that in the Dictionary of the Irish Language,
ere is given as an alternate spelling for aire. -mon from -man-os is a bit
odd, but not without precedent: note Irish foss "youth/servant" from Common
Celtic *uast-os (Gaulish Uasso-, Welsh Gwas).

> There are some questions that must be addressed if one wants to
> combine Aryaman with Ariomanus. They look (deceptively?) similar "on
> the surface" but their positions within their respective linguistic
> groups are rather different. Arya-mán- is a consonantal stem,
> apparently with the suffix *-me(:)n- (certainly _not_ IIr. *manu-
> s 'man'!), while Celtic *-ma:no-s is ... well, what is it anyway? Not
> anything that could easily be derived from *arjo-me:n, is it?

PIE *-men endings regularly develop into Celtic -man. Note the Gaulish forms
garman "invocation" (PIE *ger@-men) and anman "name" (PIE *@no-men). The
suffix -man-os could be seen as PIE *-men with a secondary (anthropic)
masculine suffix added to it.

> Aryamán- corresponds to a common noun meaning "friend" and in general
> appears to be a personification of companionship, solidarity etc.
> *arjo-ma:nos (correct me if I'm wrong) has no really convincing
> etymology within Celtic, and _if_ related to <aire>, it doesn't quite
> correspond to <aryamán-> semantically.

Well, ariios is found in a Gaulish inscription where it appears to be a
title of some sort - which would match the use of aire in Old Irish - so the
etymology is speculative, but is agreed by quite a few Celticists as
representing PIE *aryo-.

> What about the following (EXTREMELY speculative) idea? The name or
> religious term *arjaman- (with some morphological and phonological
> adjustment) could be an element of Iranian (presumably Scythian)
> influence on early Celtic, together with the associated furrow-and-
> cow's-urine/milk ritual.

Very possible - and has already been suggested in an older article that I
can't recall at the moment (where it was suggested that Ariomanus, like
Mithras, was a part of an imported Persian cult in Gaul). It is important to
remember that the Celts and Scythians were certainly in contact and even
involved in cultural (and ethnic) interchange in Eastern Europe (giving rise
to the term Celto-Scythians amongst certain ancient authors). It is entirely
possible that a Scythian Aryaman entered Gaul from the east and was then
imported into Ireland at a late date (which might explain why Eremon is
considered the first king of late invaders of Ireland - though Puhvel would
explain this as being due to the fact that Eremon-Aryaman is a subordinate
satellite of Nuadu-Mitra).

-Chris Gwinn