--- patrick cuadrado <dicoceltique@...> wrote:
> for you, is possible to connect *Bhebhorg'hH2e > *peporkha
> with celtic Town name "Bibracte" = Bi-bracte . Bract- < Phraktos
= Fence but Bi-(?)
>
First, I must emphasise that the reconstruction *bhebhorg(')h-H2e was
not my first choice. The Greek forms point to *bherk-. Yet, since the
forms exhibiting the last consonant are attested only late, the first
instance occuring in Isocrates, one cannot exclude altogether that
the Greek form may in fact be derived from PIE *bherg(')h- "hide,
preserve" (Germ. bergen, Russ. berec^'). This root is normally kept
apart from PIE *bherg'h- "high" (Germ. Berg, Burg).
If Hesychius phyrkos "teikhos" belongs to the same root (with
irregular *r > ur), we have additional evidence for *k. Cf.
Chantraine: "Au moins depuis Curtius, Grundzüge 715, on est tenté de
rattacher phyrkos au groupe du phrassô, Pokorny 110, etc.; voir en
particulier H. Jacobsohn, KZ 48, 1918, 139-140, qui le plaçait
hardiment à côté de got. baúrgs, en posant *bhrk-; on aurait un
traitement -ur- de *r Schwyzer Gr. Gr. 1,351" (p. 1235). The
connection with Germ. Burg is indeed bold and less convincing than
the traditional association with the root of Berg.
No matter how one reconstructs the last consonant of Greek phrassô,
phraktos, the phonology would allow that Celtic Bibracte belonged to
the same root. However, as you observe, the first syllable would be
left unaccounted then. Pokorny derives the Celtic place name and
river name (sic!) from *bibros "beaver" < PIE *bhebhros "brown" (also
in other Celtic toponyms). At any rate, from a methodological point
of view, it is rather problematic to associate a place name with
unknown semantics with one particular root - and even more so if one
has no other evidence for the existence of the root in the dialect in
question.
George