From: Dr. Antonio Sciarretta
Message: 11730
Date: 2001-12-07
Is there some Germanic, Celtic and Italic cognate of IE *gWeri- "mountain"?
Here is an idea:
*gWeri-(/gWor-) 'mountain' > -bora in Celtiberian
--- Conda-bora, maybe E-bora (also spelled Ebura, but o/u seems to be a feature of Celtiberian) if not = Gaulish eburos, possibily from *ei- 'to go'
and Osco-Umbrian (?) and "Siculian"
--- Isburus, is = lat. ex, burus if not from *bora- 'stream', cfr. Thracian *para (Georgiev)
Latin forms would be something like -gria, -voria, -veria, -varia, with Osco-Umbrian -bria (Umbria?)
Umbria should be related to the ethnonym Am(b)rones/Ombrici, two versions probably in an older /a/ language and in Umbrian itself, /o/ language.
So -bri- seems to be part of the root.
The -bria in Thracian place-names should have a completely different origin. In this language we have evidence of *kiri- < *gwRi-, while in Dacian it is *giri-
Are there another IE words for "mountain, mount, hill" ?
Antonio Sciarretta