The Indo-European Personal Names of Pannonia, Noricum and Northern Italy: Comparative and Superlative Forms in Celtic, Venetic, and South-Picene

This work aims to clarify a number of issues concerning the etymology of personal names attested in Latin epigraphy in the Alpine region, especially in Gallia Transpadana, Venetia et Histria, Pannonia, and Noricum. The author selected a number of comparative and superlative proprial forms which may be classified as Celtic or Italic and attempted to establish their language attribution based on the analysis of their etymology, geographic distribution and the sound changes that they presumably underwent. The author also offers an explanation of the different and apparently contradictory types of vowel syncope characteristic of the Gaulish superlative forms, which is based on a hypothesis about the successive accent shifts, before and after the split-up of the Celtic language family. Additionally, this analysis has some bearing on the interpretation of several South-Picene inscriptions, namely that from Penna Sant’Andrea. The paper also seeks to make a methodological point by exhibiting how much the evidence of proper names with clearly discernable patterns may contribute to the understanding of particular issues related to the phonology and morphology of the whole group of languages. Such information may lead, in its turn, to new etymologies, and therefore to better understanding of some particular features of the Celtic languages in their early period.