tai
| Attestation: | BG·36.2 (tai) (1) |
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| Language: | perhaps Celtic |
| Word Type: | proper noun |
| Semantic Field: | personal name |
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| Grammatical Categories: | gen. sg. masc. |
| Stem Class: | o |
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| Morphemic Analysis: | ta-ī (?) |
| Phonemic Analysis: | unknown |
| Meaning: | 'of Taios' (?) |
Commentary
Possibly a masculine personal name in the genitive (Morandi 2003: 131, no. 12, 2004: 715, no. 293), though it cannot be excluded that the sequence, like many three-letter sequences in the corpus, is an abbreviation of a personal name (Morandi 2007: 301, no. 33). In either case, certainly Celtic comparanda for the base – tai- or dai- – are rare. Morandi 2003: 131 (no. 12) compares taius listed in AcS II: 1706, specifically CIL V 4670 l. petronius tai f. from Brescia (Untermann 1959: 138 with n. 34); cf. also V 5567 taiei f. (Gallarate), V 6766 taia (Ciliano), CIL V 7741 taietius (San Margherita/Rapallo) and V 5199 dai f. (Clusone), as well as Venetic Es 12 tainon[, Pellegrini & Prosdocimi 1967 II: 169). Holder (p. 1705) further has attestations from Vienne, Bloye and Saint-Germain (Albens), and taietionis is attested at Maria Saal (III 4784, Noricum). Untermann 1958: 185 f. suggests for the "Ligurian" attestations taia and taienius that intervocalic i̯ may go back to -gi̯-, in which case the names could be connected with the base dag- 'good', but this is speculative.
The genitive in -ī may be Latin rather than Celtic.
Bibliography
| AcS | Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907. |
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