Re: The reason for Caesar's obtaining the two Gauls as province

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

>
> [...]
>
> Ernout-Meillet:
> 'callis, -is c.(le genre est flottant comme pour beaucoup de noms en -is): piste de troupeau, sentier tracé par les animaux; différent à l'origine de s�"mita, cf. Vg., Ae. 9,383, rara per occultos lucebat semita calles; Serv. Ae.4,405; Isid., Diff.1,539; Orig. 15,16,10. Puis toute espèce de sentier ou de route. -
> Ancien, technique. M.L.1520.
> Faussement rapproché de callum, callus "ā callō pedum" par les anciens.
> Dérivé: callitānus (inscr.).
> Il est vain de rapprocher irl. caill "forêt", lit. ke~lias "chemin", serbe klánac "défilé", trop éloignés, les uns par la forme, les autres par le sens.'

I see no reason to discard the connection between <callis> and <callum>, even if "les anciens" were off the mark in their details. A path has a hard surface from the trampling of humans and cattle, and a blister also has a hard surface.

> Pokorny:
> 'kalni- "enger Durchgang, enger Pfad"?
> Lat. callis "Bergpfad, Waldweg, Gebirgstrift';
> bulgar. klánik "Raum zwischen Herd und Wand",
> serb. klánac, Gen. klánca "Engpaß",
> sloven. klánəc "Hohlweg, Gebirgsweg, Rinnsal eines Baches, Dorfgasse",
> čech. klanec "Bergsattel, Paß".
> WP. I 356 f., WH. I 140 f.'

Latin <callis> goes better under Pokorny's *kal-(1) 'hart', IEW 523-4. I suspect that the original root was verbal, probably *keh2l- 'to harden the surface of'. The original meaning is well preserved in Slavic, e.g. Czech <kaliti> 'to temper, case-harden'. Russian <kalitI> 'to heat, roast' suggests an intermediate Old Russ. sense 'to toast, harden the surface of (a piece of bread)'.

Lat. <callum> and <callis> in this view continue zero-grade formations *k&2l-no'-, *k&2l-ni'-. From the same stem are Welsh <caill>, Breton <kell> 'testicle' (cf. English slang <rocks>). Gaulish *caljo-, *calja:wo- 'stone' vel sim. are reflected in French <chaille> 'concretion, flint' and <caillou> 'pebble' (from a non-/ka/-fronting dialect).

Matasovic', following Joseph, puts Proto-Celtic *kaleto- 'hard' (Old Irish <calath>, We. <caled>) with PIE *k^elh{x}- 'to freeze' (Avestan <sar@...> 'cold', Lithuanian <s^a'lti> 'to be cold, freeze'. I think however that Pokorny was correct to place *kaleto- under *kal- 'hard'. It can represent a secondary participle built to the zero-grade stem of *keh2l-, namely *k&2l-eto-.

> The geographical distribution points to an original Venetic word. Suetonius' 'silvae callesque' seems to point to some connection with "forest", pace Ernout-Meillet.

Modern Venetian has <cale>, the expected reflex of Lat. <callem>. I see no good reason to regard <callis> as other than inherited.

DGK