Re: hal

--- In cybalist@..., Piotr Gasiorowski <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: tgpedersen
> To: cybalist@...
> Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 1:46 PM
> Subject: [tied] hal
>
>
> > They produced salt in the area around Halle (in Thuringia,

Germany).

> There is an ancient salt mine in Bad Hallein, Austria.
>
> > Celtic doesn't have *s- -> *h- (like Greek), or? Might there be
> another candidate laguage in that area with that development?
>
> Brittonic Celtic (Welsh, Cornish, Breton) does have this change!

The Welsh for 'salt' is <halen> (cf. OIr. salann). In inscriptional
Gaulish *s is preserved as <s>, but since Gaulish and Brittionic are
close relatives, it's quite possible that some of the continental
dialects treated their *s's in the Bryttonic way, and this indeed has
been argued to explain the <hal-> toponymy.

>
> Piotr

Not to forget Hallstatt itself, where I now learn they also mined
salt.

Torsten