[Courrier indésirable] [tied] Re: DBG

>> I don't really understand what you mean by "non-indo-european
>> profile" - both Aedui and Carnuti are perfectly good Celtic names
>> with solid Proto-Indo-Euroepan etymologies.
>
> I am ready to read about these solid PIE etymologies.

As Brian mentioned, PIE *aidh- "fire" for Aedui (comparable to the
Irish u-stem aed "fire"). Carnuti seems to be ultimately derived
from PIE *kerh2- "horn" (via a suffixed form *k'rno-; compare Irish
corn, Welsh carn "hoof; drinking-horn", Gaulish carnon "trumpet
[instrument]").

> How many Welsh words displaying this scheme *a_u do you know ?

Marw, carw, garw, llanw, tarw, and banw (from Brittonic *maruo-,
*caruo-, *garuo-, *lanuo-, *taruo- and *banuo-, respectively) come
to mind immediately. There are certainly others.

>> I don't think that this is a non-Indo-European word - it is
>> usually considered a relative of Celtic nemeto- "sacred grove",
>> and a derivative of PIE *nem-(2) "to bend".

> This transmutation from "bend" to "sacred groove" to "valley" is
> the kind of jumps into the dreamland of semantics wonders I cannot
> believe.
>
> How do you account for such wonders ?

Think! It's really not that wondrous. Anyway, Brian summed it up
neatly for you.

- Chris Gwinn