05-11-03 22:22, Jim Rader wrote:
> 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 <slaugà>, "service," beside Old Irish <slóg, 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).
For example:
Celt. *dru:to- 'strong' : Baltic *dru:ta-
Celt. *dubro- 'water' : Latv. dubra 'puddle', Slavic *dUbrI 'a hollow'
Celt. *dubno- 'deep' : BSl. *dubna- 'bottom'
Celt. *kom-atros 'co-father' (< *kom-p&2tro-) : E & W Slavic *kUmotrU
(here the absence of *p leaves no doubt as to the origin)
Celt. *wranka: 'paw, limb' : BSl. ranka: 'hand'
In some cases it's a particular derivative (cf. the case of *dHub-ro-,
*dHub-no-) or a characteristic meaning (the case of *wranka:) that
suggests a connection, while the root may be more widespread. In the
case of Slavic *kUmotrU the Christian meaning 'godfather' may be
secondary. Gaulish <komaterekos> supports the netymology.
Stalmaszczyk and Witczak (Linguistica Baltica 4 [1995]) give more
examples, but not all of them are quite convincing.
Piotr