uerkalai
| Attestation: | TI·36.1 (slaniai:uerkalai:pala) (1) |
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| Language: | Lepontic |
| Word Type: | proper noun |
| Semantic Field: | patronymic |
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| Grammatical Categories: | dat. sg. fem. |
| Stem Class: | ā |
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| Morphemic Analysis: | u̯erk/g-al-āi̯ or u̯er-k-al-āi̯ |
| Phonemic Analysis: | /u̯ergalāi̯/ or /u̯erkalāi̯/ |
| Meaning: | 'for the daughter of Uerkos' |
Commentary
ā-stem patronym in the dative derived with the suffix -alā from an o-stem personal name *u̯erkos or *u̯ergos; an on-stem variant is likely attested in Cisalpine Celtic uerkou. Multiple analyses are possible:
1. Base u̯erg- (Gaulish uergissa, ethnonym uergunni (?), see Delamarre 2007: 196, 236, KGP: 291 f.), either u̯ergā < PIE *u̯erHg̑-eh₂, OIr. ferc 'anger, wrath' (Zair 2012: 186 f.), or u̯erg- < PIE *u̯erg̑- 'work' (LIV²: 686 f.) as maybe attested in the Gaulish title (epigraphically) uercobretos / (Caesar) uergobretos (see DLG: 315). Thus Rhŷs 1913: 7.
2. Base u̯erk- (e.g. Gaulish uercus/-a, uercana, uercillus, riouercus, see Delamarre 2007: 195 f., 236, KGP: 291), difficult to keep apart from u̯erg- due to the graphic variation between ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ in Transalpine Gaulish (Gallo-Latin), thus maybe a variant of u̯erg-, also from PIE *u̯erg̑- (see DLG: 314 sub uercaria). Thus Eska 1998c: 69, n. 16.
3. Hypocorism of a compound name with first element u̯er- and second element kom- (e.g. uercombogios, uerkondaridubnos [Livy]), thus Lejeune 1971: 62, n. 192, Stüber 2005: 60, tentative Uhlich 1999: 279; see Delamarre 2007: 236 for further potential comparanda with second element in /k/-, including kass- and king-.
Undecided Motta 2000: 201. See Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 135 for comparanda in Latin inscriptions from Northern Italy. Prósper 2008: 74, n. 15 compares uerkalai with anthroponyms from the Iberian Peninsula: Celtib. urkala (K.1.3), VRCALONIS (Cáceres), VRCALOCO (Burgos), VRCALA (Toledo), under the hypothesis that Continental Celtic *u̯er < PC *uφer < PIE *Huper had ultimately resulted in /ur/ in pretonic position in Celtiberian (via the intermediate stages *u̯or and *u̯ur). Since, however, -al- in Lep. uerkalai is the patronymic suffix and is exclusive to this language (which Prósper herself points out), the Lepontic and Hispano-Celtic names cannot be compared.
David Stifter, Corinna Salomon
Bibliography
| Delamarre 2007 | Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007. |
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| DLG | Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003. |
| Eska 1998c | Josef Francis Eska, "PIE *p (doesn't become) Ø in proto Celtic", Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 58 (1998), 63-80. |
