I am now (about) definitively convinced
Nant- is not PIE nor Celtic.
(macro-comparative) Root *nant?-
Reflex in PIE : *nâ (Cf. Pokorny
971-2)
Reflex in Paleo-European
: *nant?
Pokorny s-nâ mixes two roots :
*nant? : flow, wet, river, etc
*nagh : swim, float (Cf. Greek
ne:kho:)
You probably won't believe that H2 may have more
than one value
in fact, they are 8 H2 (and two H1).
Paleo-European :
Bask : *nant?-s > lats "river"
Bask * nant?-an > haran "valley" (dissimilation
is an explanation)
Etruscan : *nant?-i > neri "river" (metaphony
a_i > e_i)
Loanword : *nant? > "Celtic" nant-
LAte Celtic probably discarded the glottalic
feature.
Cf. Bask ur water as compared with PIE *ud < ut?
PIE s-nâ
Irish snu:ad "river"
The fact that Irish has not borrowed this
Paleo-European word
probably has something to tell us about where
Irish was,
as compared to other Celtic languages.
Probably more at the North of Celtic continental
area.