Europa Vasconica - Europa Semitica W DE G Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 138 Editors Walter Bisang Hans Henrich Hock Werner Winter (main editor for this volume) Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York Europa Vasconica - Europa Semitica by Theo Vennemann gen. Nierfeld edited by Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York 2003 Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin. © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. ISBN 3-11-017054-X Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at <http://dnb.ddb.de>. © Copyright 2003 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mecha- nical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, with- out permission in writing from the publisher. Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin. Printed in Germany. Contents Preface vii Introduction xiii 1. Bemerkung zum frühgermanischen Wortschatz 1 2. Die Lautverschiebungen und die Ausbreitung des 21 Indo-Germanischen 3. Zur Erklärung bayerischer Gewässer- und Siedlungsnamen 33 4. Die mitteleuropäischen Orts- und Matronennamen mit/, p, h und die Spätphase der Indogermania 95 5. Der Name der Landeshauptstadt München 123 6. Linguistic reconstruction in the context of European prehistory 139 7. Etymologische Beziehungen im Alten Europa 203 8. Zur Erklärung des ßaiem-Namens 299 9. German Eisvogel, Greek halkyon, English alder. Α study in Old European Etymology 315 10. Some West Indo-European words of uncertain origin 343 11. Atlantiker in Nordwesteuropa: Pikten und Vanen 371 12. Der Kastalische Quell, die Gastein und das Rätische: Mit einem Anhang zu Kassandra und Kastianeira 397 13. Zur Etymologie der Sippe von engl, knife, franz. canif, 427 bask, kanibet 14. Basken, Semiten, Indogermanen: 453 Urheimatfragen in linguistischer und anthropologischer Sicht 15. Pre-Indo-European toponyms in Central and Western Europe: 473 Bid-IBed- and Pit- names vi Contents 16. Remarks on some British place names 479 17. Zur Frage der vorindogermanischen Substrate 517 in Mittel- und Westeuropa 18. Andromeda and the Apples of the Hesperides 591 19. Germania Semitica: +plög-l+pleg-, +jurh-/+farh-, +folk-/+flokk-, +felh-/+folg- 653 20. Etymology and phonotactics: Latin grandis vs. Basque handi 'big' and similar problems 673 21. Germania Semitica: Biene und Imme: Mit einem Anhang zu lat. apis 713 22. Zur Etymologie von tire, dem Namen Irlands 729 23. Zur Etymologie von Senne: Mit einem Anhang zur Etymologie von lat. cäseus 'Käse' 737 24. Volksetymologie und Ortsnamenforschung: 753 Begriffsbestimmung und Anwendung auf ausgewählte, überwiegend bayerische Toponyme 25. Testing the West: Hesperia, Euskal Herria, Europe, Abendland 803 and supporting etymologies 26. Grundfragen der Ortsnamenforschung, 820 dargestellt an den Beispielen Ebersberg und Yssingeaux sowie weiteren bayerischen und europäischen Örtlichkeitsnamen 27. Water all over the place : 857 The Old European toponyms and their Vasconic origin: With notes on the names of Cannes and Le Suquet Abbreviations 871 References 877 Index of Atlantic and Old European Appellatives 941 Index of Place Names 959 Subject Index 975 Preface Etymology is from beginning to end a matter of balancing probabilities, and thick-set with un- certainties and chances of error. ... All such errors, it is hoped, will be viewed with a reasonable degree of indulgence, considering the novelty and the extreme laboriousness of the undertaking (William Dwight Whitney 1885: xi f.). 1. Aim of this book Europa Vasconica - Europa Semitica proposes and defends two major theses: (1) Vasconic languages, i.e. languages related to present-day Basque, were spoken in Europe north of the Pyrenees and the Alps for several millennia after the last ice-age. (2) Semitidic languages, i.e. languages related to the Mediterranean Hamito-Semitic languages, were spoken along the European Atlantic Seaboard from the fifth millennium B.C. until the first millennium of our era. The second thesis comprises three parts: (a) The Semitidic languages of the Atlantic littoral gave many loan- words to Indo-European, especially its western branches. (b) Germanic in particular was shaped both lexically and structurally by a Semitic, probably Phoenician superstratum. (c) The strong substratal influence on the Celtic languages of the British Isles, which has been known and studied for over a hundred years, is owed to this far-reaching Semitidic influence on Western Europe. The volume contains all papers I published on the matter between 1984 and 2000, plus one very comprehensive account that I was promised viii Preface would be published but which never did go to press. It appears here as chapter 17. I have been urged by many to write a book on my theory or at least to publish a collection of the existing papers, several of which have ap- peared in volumes not easily available in some parts of the world. Since new discoveries supporting the theory continue to be made, I have opted for the second approach, despite a serious drawback: Since the articles, most of them originally conference papers or guest lectures, had each been composed so as to be complete in themselves, while at the same time reflecting the progress reached in developing the theory, the book as a whole unfortunately contains many repetitions. This will be incon- spicuous to readers of individual papers but may at times be irritating to those reading the book continuously. I regret this and apologize. 2. From article to chapter All papers are here reproduced as they first appeared, with the original pagination indicated by the symbol Γ . Only obvious oversights have η been silently corrected. I was tempted at times to revise the papers in the light of criticisms I have been sent or have noticed in the literature. But that would have changed the character of the enterprise too much, so that I decided to leave things as they are, adding only occasional cor- recting notes, and bear the brunt of heavier corrections in reviews which this book will hopefully invite. To facilitate the use of this volume, all papers are here printed as "chapters" in a uniform format. English summaries have been added, marked as additions except in those cases where abstracts are part of the original publication. Furthermore, Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna has pre- pared a list of abbreviations, a unified bibliography for all chapters of the book, and several thematic indexes. She has also written an intro- duction. 3. The next round Since the series of articles collected in this book ends with the year 2000, one may ask: What has been accomplished since then, and where is the theory going? Most of the work done in the years since then con- cerns that part of the theory which deals with Atlantic influences in Germania and in the British Isles. Semitic etymologies for sociologically important Germanic words Preface ix lacking convincing Indo-European etymologies emphasize the super- stratal character of this early influence; they include PGmc. +apal- 'no- bility' (OE cedel-, G Adel), PGmc. +sibjö 'family' (E sib, G Sippe), the strong verbs PGmc. +dragan (E draw, drag, G tragen), PGmc. +drepan 'to hit' (OE drepan, G treffen), and the theonyms Ρ hoi and Balder of the Second Merseburg Charm. By contrast, the substratal Semitidic influence in the British Isles is apparent in what I call the transitivity of language contact, specifically Semitidic —> Celtic —> English, whereby several of the structural influ- ences of the Semitidic substrate on Insular Celtic were passed on from Insular Celtic to Anglo-Saxon (and later once more to the Celtic Eng- lishes such as Irish English). Features treated in this context are the rise of the verbal noun, the loss of the external possessor construction (i.e. the sympathetic dative), the method of answering Yes/No-questions, the subject disagreement rule (of northern English dialects), and the sub- ordinating use of 'and' (in Irish English). A brief survey of this work including references forms part of Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna's Introduction. If interest in the kind of work reflected in the book lasts beyond this first collection, a sequel volume containing these and subsequent papers could be contemplated. 4. Acknowledgements Many friends and colleagues have contributed data, advice, or criticism to this book over the years, namely to the individual articles when they were first written and published. Their names are found again in the chapters of this book. As for the book itself, I would like to acknowledge several people who were helpful with the manuscript for this volume: First and fore- most Dr. Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna who assembled all the articles with their differing formats and turned them into chapters of a book, who composed the indexes, wrote the Introduction as well as first versions of the added chapter summaries, and gently but tenaciously kept me busy on the project despite continuing research and much university work on her and my part; then Stephen Laker M.A. who, with his scholarly and native-speaker competence, did much to improve the grammar, style, and comprehensibility of the added portions and who, together with Robert Mailhammer M.A. and Dr. Andrea Böhm (nee Appelt), proof- read several of the chapters of the book; Elisabeth Hamel who, besides providing information for some of the toponymic topics, developed most of the graphics, and stud.phil. Oliver Rezec who unified and re-