sunalei

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Attestation:	TI·37 (ṣụnaḷei:makọ[) (1)
Status:	uncertain
Language:	perhaps Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	personal name
Grammatical Categories:	dat. sg. animate
Stem Class:	i
Morphemic Analysis:	sun-al-ei̯
Phonemic Analysis:	/su/ūn(n)alei̯/
Meaning:	'for Sunalis'

Commentary

See the inscription page on the reading.

i-stem personal name in the dative (already Danielsson 1909: 24). The name appears to be formed from a base sun- with the formant -al-, which is more common in the eastern parts of northern Italy (see the morpheme page). The patronymic suffix -al- can be excluded because of the name's position in the text and the stem class, though PN-forming -al- appears to be thematic as well (cf. Lejeune 1971: 65, n. 223, but cf. the Venetic i-stem *Pa 25 tivalei [dat.]). Lejeune 1971: 52, n. 131 notes that the name could be a petrified patronym.

An opaque base sun(n)i-/sun(n)u- appears e.g. in CIL XIII 865 sunutius (Bordeaux), XIII 8036 sunicio (dat., Bonn), V 7973 sunni (gen., Cimiez), s. AcS II: 1668–1670, KGP: 274, Delamarre 2007: 233 et passim. Cf. Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 139, Motta 2000: 206. See also Salomon 2024: 150.

Corinna Salomon

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)
Danielsson 1909	Olof August Danielsson, Zu den venetischen und lepontischen Inschriften [= Skrifter utgivna av Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala 13.1], Uppsala – Leipzig: 1909.
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.