atecua

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Attestation:	VB·18 (atecua) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. fem.
Stem Class:	ā
Morphemic Analysis:	ate- or ad-tek-u-ā
Phonemic Analysis:	/atekuā/
Meaning:	'Atekua'

Commentary

The personal name, which is also attested in the Lepontic alphabet atekua, has been subject of debate since Rhŷs 1913: 52 booked it as an attestation of a q-Celtic variant of atepa. Lejeune 1971: 68 f. relativised the value of the name as evidence for the retention of the group /ku̯/ (here as in *eku̯o- 'horse') in Lepontic (cf. Kretschmer 1905: 126, Whatmough PID: 69) by observing that the spelling of the Latin attestation with ⟨cu⟩ rather than ⟨qu⟩ indicates a pronunciation /ku^u̯/; the same applies when atepa is analysed as containing as second element *tek^u̯- 'run' with labiovelar. Lejeune 1971: 59 segmented ate- + kuo "obscur"; the latter could be compared with the base of the patronym ku-al-ui, which Lejeune also argued to be bi-syllabic. Alternatively, in atecua/atekua, a second element which is an u-stem may best account for the spelling, the evident candidate being teku- 'beautiful', which may also be attested in tekialui. The preverb may be ate- with haplology or ad- (see atepo for the simple dental), both with intensifying function. Cf. ateciae in Brescia and attecius in Dalmatia, which are analysed as ad-tek- by Delamarre 2007: 28, 32.

See also Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 153, Motta 2000: 210, Eska 2006: 232.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.
Eska 2006	Joseph F. Eska, "The genitive plural desinence in Celtic and dialect geography", Die Sprache 46/2 (2006), 229–235.