At 12:54 05.11.2001 +0000, you wrote:
> What language did the inhabitants of Caesar's "partes tres",
>specifically Galli and Belgae, speak?
I can say that in Belgica we find a lot of clearly Gall (then p-Celtic)
place-names, with characteristic II terms such as -durum 'fortress'
(Batavodurum < etn. Batavi, Dividurum < prob. gall. 'divine, god' < celt.
*deiuo-s, Ganodurum), -magus 'field' (Borbetomagus < prob. gall. 'bubbling'
< *bher-u-, cfr. lat. ferveo, Neomagus < gall. *novios 'new' , Ratomagus <
gall. 'fence' < celt. *ratis), -dunum 'castle' (Lugdunum), -briva 'bridge'
(Samarobriva).
But otherwise, we can find also toponyms that maybe could be related to
Germanic. For example, what do you think about Mocontiacum < IE *muk-
'marsh', cfr. latv. muka 'id.' with *u > *au (in Germanic) > *o ?
And about Mosa fl. < IE *mus- 'moss', cfr. lith. musos, ohg. mos, oicel.
mosi- 'id.', with the same phonetic feature ?
This could mean that Belgica was considered a land with mixed people,
resulted from the (partial) fusion of Celtic and Germanic speakers.
But in the same region we find at least one trace of a non-Celtic,
non-Germanic language in the toponymy: it is the name of Tabula fl., if we
etymologise it from the root *(s)tebh- 'stone' (and then, 'river with
stones'), cfr. opr. Stabis, lyd. Taba, sabine Tebae, *pelasg. Thebai. This
root would appear with /o/ both in Celtic and Germanic languages, so it
should be related to the 'alteuropaeisch' stratum, considered more ancient
than the historical languages known.
>Any connection with the p/q
>division? (Yes, I looked at the backlog, but the question didn't seem
>to be resolved then?)