tunal

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Attestation:	VB·26 (tunal/koimila) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Grammatical Categories:	indeterminable
Stem Class:	?
Morphemic Analysis:	dūn-al or dunn-al (?)
Phonemic Analysis:	/d/tu/ūn(n)al/
Meaning:	unknown

Commentary

See the inscription page for a discussion of the inscription's formular and the order of the names.

tunal is one of two forms in Cisalpine Celtic funerary inscriptions ending in -al, the other being ualaunal; in essence, what is said about that form also applies here.

For the etymology of the presumable underlying onomastic element tun-, multiple options are available. Gaulish names in dun- are usually connected with dūn- 'fort'; names in dunn-, such as the nearest comparandum CIL V 5618 dunnonis (gen., Castelseprio – the name of the father of a surica), can be hypocoristics from names in dūn- with geminated /n/ (Lejeune 1971: 65, n. 228), or derived from dunn- 'brown'. Names in tunn- are rare and mainly attested in Africa, but a tunnius appears at Susa (CIL V 7311). See Holder 1896-1907: I 1374-1376, KGP: 200-201, DLG: 154, Delamarre 2007: 91, 186, 220, Sims-Williams 2003: 101, Markey & Mees 2003: 143, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 152, Tibiletti Bruno 1975: 50.

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)
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.
DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.