dieupala

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Attestation:	BS·2 (dieupala/minui) (1)
Status:	probable
Language:	prob. Venetic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	prob. personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. fem.
Stem Class:	ā
Morphemic Analysis:	—
Phonemic Analysis:	/di̯eu̯palā/ (?)
Meaning:	'Dieupala' (?)

Commentary

The form is most easily analysed as an ā-stem personal name. It does not find any immediate Celtic comparanda, and /eu̯/ speaks against a Celtic etymology (but cf. the names in leu̯k-). Untermann 1959: 131 suggests a derivation in -alo-, but this would leave a dubious base dieupo-. Prósper 2024: 18–21 proposes an analysis as a Venetic dithematic name formed with *di̯eu̯(u)- 'sky' (comparing putative Venetic CIL III 5417 dieuonis < *di̯eu̯-(i)i̯o- attested in a Celtic onomastic context in Noricum) and *ph₂-ló- from the root *peh₂- 'protect' (cf. Lusitanian trebopala). See also TLL Onom. III.2: 150.33 s.v., Tibiletti Bruno 1973: 157, Pellegrini 1983: 35 f.

Earlier publications attempted to analyse the form as containing the lexeme pala. Rhŷs 1913: 71 f. compared Insular Celtic continuations of PIE *di̯eu̯- and Lat. diū 'for a long time', and translated 'perpetual or permanent grave or burial place'. Kretschmer 1943: 192–194 interpreted dieu- as the word for 'Zeus', comparing Oscan monuments with diuvila, iúvila (Untermann 2000: 188): 'Iovis-stone' (also Pisani 1964: 330, no. 140, Tibiletti Bruno 1973: 156 f., Pisani 1977: 345). Cf. also Tibiletti Bruno 1973: 157, n. 29, who compares dieu as read by Prosdocimi 1965: 597 f. in a Camunic rock inscription at Capo di Ponte (also Morandi 2001b: 62). A separation of the sequence dieupala into two words was supported by Rhŷs 1914: 30–32 after a letter from Gustav Herbig from 1913. He interpreted dieu as a patronym formed from a PN di̯os (di-e-ūi̯ with final -i̯ unaccountably lost). Cf. the inscription page.

Bibliography

CIL	Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)