Piotr--
What other etyma are found only in Celtic and Balto-Slavic? The only
one I can think of OTOH is *sloug- in OCS <sluga>, "servant,"
Lithuanian <slaug�>, "service," beside Old Irish <sl�g, sluag>, "armed
host," Welsh <llu>. The Belgic tribal name <Catuslugi> points to *ou
rather than *au as the original vocalism, I think--can't tell from the later
Celto-Balto-Slavic forms, which merge these diphthongs. There is
divergence in meaning, but cf. OCS <voevodiny slugy>, "armed
retainers" (druZiniki).
The base *gal- has only this vocalism, it seems, to judge from the
Continental Celtic and Welsh forms.
Jim Rader
>
> Celtic *gal(i)a: also means 'power' (hence the ethonyms Galli and
> Galatae), related to the verb *gal-ne- 'be able'; cf. Welsh gallu
> 'power; be able'. It's one of those several interesting lexical
> isoglosses that link Celtic with Balto-Slavic. They seem to be early
> loans (from Celtic into Baltic and Slavic rather than the other way
> round).
>
> Piotr
>
Jim Rader
Etymology Editor
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