Ligurian

From: Rick McCallister
Message: 69388
Date: 2012-04-21

I was wondering about Ligurian. I was following Wikipedia because I don't have any other evidence. Now there are some words in Corsica and Sardinia that seem to be IE but are not Celtic. Are they Ligurian? Also, is Ligurian close to Lusitanian?


From: dgkilday57 <dgkilday57@...>
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:59 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Basque mendi 'mountain'

 


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> ***R
> It would seem that there are maybe 3 to 5 known branches of Celtic
> 1. Ibero-Celtic
> 2. Gallo-Brythonic, including Lepontic and possibly Belgic & Ligurian
> 3. Goidelic
> 4. Maybe Tartesso-Celtic
> 5. Maybe Noric-Balkan-Galatian Celtic (unless an extension of  G-B)

Strabo was correct in distinguishing Ligurians from Celts. Several phonological developments show that Ligurian cannot be a Celtic language:

1. PIE *p > Lig. /p/. The river Porcobera (Sent. Minuc.), Latinized as Porcifera (Plin.), now Polcevere, evidently means 'salmon-bearing' (*pork^o-bHer-); cf. Old Irish <erc>, <orc> 'perch, salmon', OHG <ferhana> 'trout', etc.

2. PIE *gWH > Lig. /b/. Lucus Bormani (Itin. Ant.) and other Lig. place-names (and god-names) associated with warm springs, collected by Kretschmer, evidently reflect PIE *gWHorm- 'warm', Lat. <formus>; cf. Skt. <gharmas>, Old Pruss. <gorme>, OIr <gor> 'heat', etc.

3. PIE *r. > Lig. /ar/. Bargae (Tab. Vel.) evidently continues the PIE zero-grade *bHr.g^H- (Celt. *brig-, Gmc. *burg-) from *bHerg^H- 'to protect, defend'.

4. PIE *eu > Lig. /eu/ against *ou, which Matasovic' considers pan-Celtic. He explains Neviodunum (sic) as an orthographic variant of Gallo-Latin Noviodunum, but in fact Nevidunus (Tab. Vel.) is Ligurian (in form possibly a Caland-bahuvrihi), also Leucomelium (Tab. Vel.), the personal name Nevius (Lat. inscc. of Liguria), and the Salluvian king's name Teutomalius (Liv. Epit. 61).

Ligurian agrees with Celtic in rendering the non-labiovelar mediae aspiratae as mediae. It also shows *gW > /b/ and *kW > /p/.

DGK