sapsutai

From Lexicon Leponticum
Revision as of 11:23, 15 September 2024 by Corinna Salomon (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Attestation: VB·3.1 (latumarui:sapsutai:pe:uinom:natom) (1)
Language: Celtic
Word Type: proper noun
Semantic Field: personal name

Grammatical Categories: dat. sg. fem.
Stem Class: ā

Morphemic Analysis: sapsut-āi̯
Phonemic Analysis: /????ūtāi̯/ (?)
Meaning: 'to/for Sapsuta'

Commentary

ā-stem personal name in the dative. While the ending and maybe the suffix are Celtic, the base appears to be etymologically non-Celtic. A fully Celtic etymology is attempted by Rhŷs 1913: 65 f., who notes that a suffix -ūto- is listed by Holder AcS III: 56, and compares the base with Gaul. *sap- 'fir/pine' reconstructed from Latin and Romance loanwords ('little pine'). /s/ between base and suffix, however, poses a problem, both in terms of the formation and because */ps/ > /ks/ in Celtic. While saps- thus cannot be Celtic (cf. Lejeune 1971: 64, n. 219, who seems unconvinced of his own alternative suggestion *sap/b-so-uto-), sabs- could be in principle, but is no more likely; a base sab- is more common in the Ligurian than the Celtic area (see sabi) and may indicate the origin of a non-Celtic base sabs- (cf. Lejeune 1987: 497). Tibiletti Bruno 1975: 55 compares (beside assorted names in sap(p)- and sab-) CIL IX 5777 sapsa at Macerata (Picenum), but notes that samps- is also possible (also 1978: 146, 1981: 163). Holder's ūto-suffix is not well attested, including, beside sapsuta itself, some names now thought to contain the base dut-. In favour of a non-Celtic etymology also Eska 1998c: 71 f. Cf. maybe sasamos.

See also Lattes 1896: 105, Solinas 1995: 375, Morandi 2004: 551.

Bibliography

AcS Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907.
CIL Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)
Eska 1998c Josef Francis Eska, "PIE *p (doesn't become) Ø in proto Celtic", Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 58 (1998), 63-80.