From: Tavi
Message: 69902
Date: 2012-07-20
>I don't think this is IE and much less Celtic. It must be a Vasco-Caucasian root related to NEC *k'emhV 'arc; an arched, curved body part', with parallels in Sino-Tibetan and Yeniseian. Of course, Gallo-Latin camo:x (with *long* /o:/) must also reflect this root.
> It should be clear that I do not regard Belgic as a form of Celtic. However, I think that Celtic reflexes of *g^em(h{x})- may be continued by some Ibero-Romance words. Viewed from the outside in, a branch is a confluence, and we might tentatively ascribe Asturian <gamacha> 'great branch', West Ast. <gamaya> 'id.' (Asturo-Latin *gama:cula) to a Celtic base *gamo- from *g^m.h{x}ó-. Antlers branch, so the semantic shift 'branch' > 'antler' (> 'horn') is straightforward, and we might also assign Santandrian <gama> 'antler' here, with the more widely distributed <gamo> 'antlered animal, fallow deer' as a back-formation. Anlaut-contamination would then explain why Spanish <gamuza> 'chamois' has initial /g/, when most dialects north of the Pyrenees reflect /k/ (first attested as Gallo-Latin <camox>, Pol. Silv.). And Sp. <gamón> 'Asphodelus ramosus', a plant noteworthy for branching roots, could be placed in this group as well.
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