Re: Town, Zaun, and Celtic Dun-

At 3:18:28 PM on Friday, August 21, 2009, andythewiros
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen"
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

[...]

>>> I'm trying hard to convey my point (of the inherent
>>> possibility of pure coincidence in name similarity),
>>> which I hope you have understood; to me it seems
>>> self-evident and need not be questioned.

>> I don't think that is self-evident at all. What would you
>> think of the possibility of pure coincidence if you found
>> names like 'Lakeesha' or 'Jawanda' of someone living in
>> Japan, and would you infer something about connection to
>> other people named 'Lakeesha' or 'Jawanda' living in the
>> USA and Canada?

> Hmmm. Well, in the names you offered as examples,

> ags. Pæ:ga, afries. Paya, mnd. Paye: ill. Pai(i)o Patus,
> ags. Pælli: etr. Palla Palius,
> ags. Pant-: ill. Panto Pantia,
> ags. Passa (vgl. oben): ill. Passia Passena, etr.
> Passius,
> ags. Patt Patta (vgl. oben): ill. Patalus Patalius, etr.
> Patius Patina (u. a.),
> ags. Pic *Picc- Pi:cil, alts. *Pikul (vgl. oben): etr.
> Pica,
> ags. *Pinna: ill. Pinnes Pinneus Pinnius, etr. Pennus,
> ags. Piot Peot(t) *Pita Peota: etr. Pitio Pitius Pettius,
> alts. Poppo: etr. Puppius Pupius Pupenus Pup(p)onius (u.
> a.),
> germ. *Pul- *Pull- (s. oben): ill. Pullus (Pylios) Pula-,
> etr. Pullas Pullo Pullius,
> alts. Pumi, ags. Pymma: etr. Pumidius Pummidius (vgl. den
> Nachtrag).

> the OE names tend to end in -a or a consonant,

But that's a consequence of OE grammar. OE masc. names in
<-a> are n-stems, corresponding to ON masc. names in <-i>
and OHG masc. names in <-o>, and are the largest single
category of uncompounded OE masc. names. The ones that end
in a consonant, of which there are also quite a few, are
inflected as a-stems.

> whereas the Illyrian and Etruscan names mostly end in -us,
> with some in -a or -o, and some in -ius or -ia, a sound
> combination which is not found in most OE words or names.

Again, this seems to me to be a language-internal feature.
I don't buy the argument, but I don't think that pointing to
grammatical endings is much of a counter-argument.


Brian