In fact, in Egypt there is a town in Sinai with the very name of 'al-Twr' i.e. 'the mountain'. The term is very ancient in the Classical Arabic language."
Then is this a direct connection between Arabic and Celtic? Especially with "twrr" and "twr" being so close in relation?
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PATRICK
wrote: hello, there is somme etymology links between
taurisci/taurusci celtic tribe = tauern mountain = taurus taurini =
lugurian people near alpes and Taures = scytian people living in Crimea
mountains with IE tur- (?) something swell = latin turris and not bull =
taur-
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ISHINAN: No, there is
no connection between the 'Taurini' people (an
ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, occupying the upper valley of the
river Po (in the centre of modern
Piedmont), and the Gaelic term referring to a mountain. I would
presume that you are referring to:
"tor 'high, rocky
hill, mountain' from Gael. torr 'lofty
hill, mound,' O.Welsh twrr 'heap,
pile',
which some etymologists connect with L. turris 'high
structure' (see 'tower' ). But sources disagree on whether the Celts
borrowed it from the Anglo-Saxons or the other way round."
First, if we go by the Roman sources,* (1) the
term Taur- here is in reference to a Roman
colony which was established in 27 BC with the name Castra Taurinorum and afterwards Julia Augusta Taurinorum (modern Turin). Turin, as
you know, is situated on the left bank of the Po River in northern Italy,
surrounded by the Alpine arch, and is the capital of the Piedmont region.
A quick look at Turin's coat of arms, which
is a blue shield with a crown adorned with a golden bull, is
a powerful hint to the sense of the bull = taur- as the ultimate source and not to the 'alleged'
Gaelic 'tor' = mountain.
Moreover, you might have wondered why I qualified the
Gaelic term 'tor' = mountain as alleged
being Celtic. Actually, it is widely used in Arabic and to a lesser
degree I think (if my memory serves me well) in Aramaic; hence, a full
fledge Semitic term.
The following URL is a proof of my argument including various
pertinent dictionary entries and Turin coat of arms:
Classical Arabic: 'Twr' is a mountain,
specifically a mountain covered with trees, otherwise a mountain is not so
called. Hence, Twr Sinai and Twr are references to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem or
any mountain. While the term: 'Twriyuwn' refers
to the highlander Arab nomads who dwell in the wilderness of
mountains. In fact, in Egypt there is a town in Sinai with the very name
of 'al-Twr' i.e. 'the mountain'. The term
is very ancient in the Classical Arabic language.
Ishinan
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*(1) Both Livy (v. 34) and Strabo (iv.
p. 209) speak of the country of the Taurini as including one of the passes of
the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier
times.