Re: Ligurian

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:

>
> I agree with +*baruja: as the likely outcome of zero-grade, since the best explanation I have of Lep. <pala> 'grave' is /bala:/ < *gWlh1-eh2 from *gWelh1- 'to swallow up, gulp down' (cf. Grk. <deletron>, <delear> 'fishing bait').
>

Like many IE-ists, I don't think Lepontic pala 'stone; grave' could be an IE word, and in fact it has a nice Vasco-Caucasian etymology from NEC *tK'ep'V: ~ *p'etK'V: 'stone plate or shed'.

> In an inhumating society, the ground swallows up the dead.
>

Also in modern capitalist societies, big fishes (e.g. financial corporations) eat smaller ones. Mortgages are an incredible effective trap for them.

> From the anit.-root *gWel- 'to open for swallowing, gape' I derive

*gWl.-meh2 'gaping hole' whence Ligurian *balma: 'cave, grotto, overhanging cliff, etc.'

>

I'd link *balma: with the Greek forms spéos, spêlaion (> Latin spe:laeum), spêlunks (> Latin spe:lunca), with s-mobile and a different suffix. But as in the preceding case, this can be hardly be IE.

> You are free to derive this from Celtic with

the set.-root, but the distribution of pre-Roman *balma: is Ligurian (centered on Genovese).

>

To avoid mixing ethnical and language designations we should use "pre-Latin" instead of "pre-Roman". The word balma is also found in Catalan, where it designates a not-too-shallow cavity on the rock.

> I regard pre-Roman *balwa: (in Upper German <Balfen>, <Palfen>, etc.) as the Gaulish borrowing from Lig. *balma:, not a separate formation. More later.
>

In fact, I regard *pri:ma in the topnym Primaluna as a possible Ligurian word for 'bridge' corresponding to Celtic *bri:wa:, although this is only a hypothesis.

> Tavi has given a fuller reading of the Vergiate text than I could extract from Whatmough. I believe the text can indeed be read as I suggested, and I intend to show this in response to Tavi's post.
>

Remember Asterix and Obelix. ;-)

> In your view, then, EVERYBODY was Celtic. This is only supposed to happen on St. Patrick's Day.
>

I wonder if ancient Celts drank beer as modern Irish do on the occasion.