kuimpalui

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Attestation:	TI·43 (]ọni:kuimpaḷui:pạḷạ) (1)
Status:	uncertain
Language:	perhaps Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	patronymic
Grammatical Categories:	dat. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	kom-u̯imp-al-ūi̯ (?)
Phonemic Analysis:	/kuu̯impalūi̯/ (?)
Meaning:	'for the son of Kuimpos'

Commentary

See the inscription page on the uncertain reading.

Patronym derived with suffix -al- in the dative. If the underlying personal name kuimpos is Celtic, it could have either preserved /k^u̯/ (Eska 2006: 232, n. 7; also Eska & Evans 2009: 36), or rare /g^u̯/ < PIE *g^u̯h, but neither option generates any obvious etymologies in the present case. As noted by Stifter 2003: 240 f., initial ⟨quV⟩ in Continental Celtic names could reflect /kuu̯V/ and be amenable to a segmentation into kom- 'with' + second element with initial /u̯/, in that /kuu̯V/- < /kou̯V/- with assimilated /m/ and /o/; this is especially true for the Lepontic alphabet, where letters are not repeated, so that /u̯u/ and /uu̯/ are regularly ⟨u⟩ in writing (cf. teu, and kualui as per Lejeune 1971: 68 f.). Delamarre 2007: 78 accordingly analyses names in ⟨cuat⟩- (e.g. CIL XIII 5510 cuatasius) as ko(m)-u̯at- (with u̯ati- 'prophet' / u̯atu- 'prophecy'). Applying this method to kuimpos, an analysis as kuu̯impos < ko(m)-u̯impos with second element u̯impo- 'pretty' may be feasible (but see the inscription page on the spelling ⟨mp⟩). (Cf. kuaśoni.) Alternatively, of course, kuimpos may not be etymologically Celtic – names borrowed from sub- or adstrate languages must be expected (cf. e.g. teromui, sapsutai).

See Salomon 2024: 152, Salomon 2024b: 29 f.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

CIL	Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.
Eska & Evans 2009	Joseph F. Eska, David Ellis Evans, "Continental Celtic", in: Martin J. Ball, Nicole Müller (eds), The Celtic Languages, 2nd edition, London – New York: Routledge 2009, 28–53.
Eska 2006	Joseph F. Eska, "The genitive plural desinence in Celtic and dialect geography", Die Sprache 46/2 (2006), 229–235.