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In the article the name of the West Bohemian river Mže and its tributaries are analyzed in etymological perspective. In the first plan their Slavic etymologies are analyzed. In the second plan, possibilities of their pre-Slavic origin are verified. In the case of the hydronyms Mže and Úhlava their Germanic and Celtic etymologies are discussed, while the names of other tributaries are of Slavic origin. Finally the process of replacement of the hydronymic nomenclature during changes of dominant languages is generalized in the typological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Double nasal presents—presents containing both a nasal infix and a nasal suffix—are found in Greek (type λιμπάνω 'leave'), Celtic (e.g., OIr. ro·finnadar (< *wind-n-) 'get to know'), and Germanic (Go. du-ginnan (← *-gunnan < *gund-n-) 'begin'). It is argued here that all such formations have a common origin. The starting point was the nasal-infix present of the root *ghed- 'grasp', which originally had the form *gh(n̥)néd- / *ghn̥d-´. With the reinterpretation of the root as *ghend- , the strong stem of the nasal-infix present was remade to *ghn̥d-né / ó- , and in the post-IE period the pattern was extended to other nasal-infix presents (*lin(é)kw- → *linkw-né / ó- , *u̯in(é)d- → *u̯ind-né / ó- , etc.). A corollary of the analysis is that the -a- of the Greek and Armenian presents in *-ane / o- (< *-n̥ne / o-) is epenthetic, and that the absence of a nasal in the root syllable of Arm. lkʿanem , gtanem , etc. is secondary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article the Slavic term *ǫb(ъ)lъ ‘source, spring; well’ is analyzed from the point of view of its word‑formation and etymology. The discussion of preceding etymologies leads to the formulation of a new etymology, based on the internal analysis of *ǫ‑b(ъ)lъ ‘source, spring; well’ as *n̥‑bl̥ o ‘unmuddy’ = ‘clear (water)’. The identified cognates in Baltic *balā, Germanic *pōla‑, and possibly Continental Celtic *bolā, all ‘swamp, marsh’, imply the initial, ‘non‑Indo- ‑European’, *b‑. Finally, it is tested, if the etymon could represent an extension in ‑l‑ from the root *gu̯ ebh ‑ ‘marsh, swamp’ in the zero‑grade of ablaut. The answer is ‘yes’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A noun *york- has been reconstructed as the PIE name of the 'roedeer'. This paper offers a review of the sometimes unexpected history of this root-noun and its derivatives in those daughter languages that have kept them: Greek ζορκ-, δορκ- (1), Celtic *york-, *yurk- (2), probably Germanic *raiχ- (3), possibly Indic ś-ya- (4). Unrelated to *york-, on the other hand, are Armenian ors 'hunt, game' (8), and probably Latin hircus (5), Luwian irwa- (6), Tocharian yerkwantala* (7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using etymological methods, the present study has identified five Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies. These five etymologies form a rhyme correspondence. This regular sound change validates the etymological connection between Sinitic and Uralic. The Finnic term for 'sky' is among these five etymologies. It is demonstrated that this word root should be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.

The paper focuses on the probability of the Celtic substratum hypothesis in the toponymy of North Holland. Agreeing that the most north-western tip of the Netherlands is an unlikely place to look for Celtic toponyms, the author suggests that the name Huisduinen relates to the same group of names of which Heusden is the most common representative, and which appears to have a Celtic etymology. Thus making it a tempting task to look at a few other names in the same area. As the area lost most of its population in the 4th century AD and became repopulated in the 5th century, language shift offers a possible scenario for a change from Celtic to Germanic with remnants of a Celtic substratum surviving up to the present day. In the same period, the landscape involved saw radical changes as well. In earlier publications it has been suggested that the medieval name Uxalia may be Celtic. Here it is suggested that this name may originally refer to the present-day island of Texel and not — as it later did — to the neighbouring island of Vlieland. A Celtic etymology is also proposed for the names Helsdeur and Den Helder, which — if accepted — have related etymologies. The name Helsdeur refers to the deepest part of the strait between the mainland of the province North Holland and the island of Texel. The lack of early attestations of this name is explained by suggesting its probable taboo status. This hypothesis is supported by a series of relevant examples of taboo place names in the maritime context.

Solutions based on "equivalence interference" are proposed for various problems involving OE verbs. WG verbs with 1SG /-ͻͻmi/ were modeled on Celtic verbs with /-aami/. Pre-OE eode is from /eiͻͻde/, analogical to 1SG /eiͻͻmi/ from /eimi/. OE dyd- is from reinterpretation of peasant /dïd-/, from low-stressed /ded-/ used as a non-emphatic periphrastic, as noble /düd-/. WG /bii-/ 'be' was modeled on Celtic /bii-/ '(habitual-future) be'. Habitual-future /bi-/ (lost on the continent) re-developed in OE on the model of habitual-future /bi-/ in Brittonic. The English rule that non-indicative forms of BE are /b/-forms is from Brittonic. 3PL bi(o)đon was modeled on Brittonic /biđont/. Pre-OE /ist/ and /im/ were influenced by Brittonic /is/ and /æm/. Loss of distinct endings before 1PL and 2PL subject pronouns and loss of distinct preterit subjunctive endings were both modeled on their analogues in Brittonic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article the primary source of Slavic *plugъ and West Germanic *plōgu-/*plōga- "plough" is discussed. The old idea of the Celtic origin leading to Cis-Alpine Gaulish *plou̯u- "plough" and *plou̯u-ambio-rātī "plough on both wheels" is analyzed in details. The u-stem *plou̯u- is derivable from the Celtic verb *ku̯leu̯-, continuing in Old Irish cloïd "turns (back), repels; turns the edge (of weapons); overthrows, destroys; changes", related to Greek πολεύω "I turn or go about" (intr.); "turn up the soil with the plough" (tr.) < *ku̯ol-eu̯-i̯ō, besides Greek πολέω "I go about, range over, haunt; turn up the earth with plough, plough"; Latin colere "to live in, inhabit; till, cultivate, farm (land); grow, cultivate (fruit, crops)". The Cis-Alpine Gaulish *plou̯u-, originally probably "turning {earth}", was during first centuries CE romanized into plōvum, in the end of the 6th cent. borrowed by Langobards and around 600 spread in Bavaria, where it was adapted in the form *plōgu-/*plōga- in agreement with Verner's law. This form was spread to the north to other West Germanic tribal dialects during the 7th century and to the east, along the stream of the Danube to the Caranthanian and Pannonian Slavs which distributed the term to more distant Slavic dialects, all probably during the 7th-8th cent.

Copyright of SELIM is the property of Sociedad Espanola de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa Medieval and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The main issue of the paper will be the identification of the clause-initial finite verbs as Co in Celtic as well as in Germanic. Framing Co as the core point of V1 and V2 types of languages will here be justified by an acquisitional analysis of V<+fin>-to-Co in Dutch. The background of this argument will be Jakobson''s (1942) thesis that there is a hierarchy of typological features and that this hierarchy will show up in language acquisition. Some properties of grammar are of course acquired before others, but, more interestingly, the major typological properties of grammar are invariably the first to be acquired. They happen to serve as the acquisitional basis for the more language-specific properties of grammar. Typological properties survive so well in the history of grammar, because they are the system''s bootstrap for learnability. The successive acquisition steps indicate how grammar is built up by input-control in a flexible way. In a first step, Celtic V1 and Germanic V2 share the basic property of a clause-typing head V<+fin> in Co. The acquisition data suggest that finiteness, not tense, must be the trigger for verb movement. The subject obligation, as well as tense and agreement markings come in after verb movement. The subject obligation seems to get underlined, rather than to be derived from uninterpretable phi-features. The last section discusses the growing importance of Spec.C in Dutch and the typological difference this will cause between V1 and V2 languages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This introduction presents the research project of the volume Verb-first, Verb-second and sketches its empirical domain and theoretical background, introducing the contributions to the volume through a survey of the main issues at stake. I present a typology of V2 languages, and discuss their parallels and divergences with V1 languages in a comparative and theoretical perspective. The definitional contrast between V1 and V2 is set up by an inventory of what can come first in V2 orders, from multiple XPs to heads, and V2 is discussed in the broader context of other second position phenomena. The syntactic properties associated in the literature with V2 are systematically confronted with crosslinguistic variation: verb-finality, particular underlying word orders, verb landing site, agreement morphology, VS adjacency, left periphery specific to V2, information structure constraints, and expletives. The reader is provided with robust typological generalisations and a clear terminology for a better understanding of the contributions in this volume and their context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this review article we evaluate Theo Vennemann's provocative theories on the role of Afroasiatic and Vasconic (e.g. Basque) languages in the pre-historic development of Indo-European languages in Europe as presented in the volume Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica, a collection of 27 of Vennemann''s essays. First, Vennemann argues that after the last ice age most of Central and Western Europe was inhabited by speakers of Vasconic languages, the only survivor of which is Basque. These speakers formed a substrate to the later-arriving Indo-Europeans. The primary evidence for the presence of Vasconic throughout much of Europe is drawn from the Old European hydronyms originally identified by Hans Krahe as Indo-European and reanalyzed by Vennemann as Vasconic. Second, Vennemann maintains that Afroasiatic speakers colonized coastal regions of Western and Northern Europe beginning in the fifth millennium BCE. According to his theory, these speakers formed a superstrate or adstrate in Northern Europe and had a profound impact on the lexical and structural development of Germanic. In the British Isles the language of these colonizers, which Vennemann calls “Semitidic” (also “Atlantic”), had a strong substratal influence on the structural development of Insular Celtic. In this essay we examine the evidence for and against Vennemann's theories and his methodology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The origin of sail has been debated for a long time, but the linguistic evidence has rarely been taken into account. The word sail has a cognate in two Celtic languages, and a good linguistic chronology is available for these. The reconstructed historical development of Celtic and Germanic words indicates that the word existed in West Germanic well before the Anglo-Saxon migrations and the confinement of Celtic to the British Isles. An origin of both word and technology in the Celtic world is proposed, both being passed into the Germanic world in the Rhine region. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Indo-European root *seĝh-, encompassing notions of‘holding, seizing’, possibly‘harnessing power’, and its derivative *seĝhlosare proposed as etyma for a northern Gaulish word for‘sail’ that then spread, with the attendant technology, to adjacent Celtic and Germanic dialects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]