naśom

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Attestation:	VB·3.1 (latumarui:sapsutai:pe:uinom:natom) (1)
Status:	unlikely
Language:	perhaps Greek
adapted to:	Celtic
Word Type:	adjective
Grammatical Categories:	nom., acc. masc., neut.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	naχs-i̯-om or naχs-i̯-om (?)
Phonemic Analysis:	/na/ā?om/
Meaning:	unknown

Commentary

See the inscription page on the unlikely reading.

The analysis of naśom as a Celtic adjective 'Naxian', formed from the Greek toponym naxos, determining uinom 'wine' (see there on the question of neuter [nom./acc.] vs. masculine [acc.]) goes back to Lattes 1896: 103 f., who compared saśadis at Voltino for san = /χs/. As noted by Kretschmer 1905: 100, naχsom lacks the suffix -(i)i̯-, which was subsequently accounted for by Lejeune 1971: 75: Lejeune compared aśouni and assumed that san could represent a palatalised sound < /ssi̯/, in this case < /χsi̯/ (but see Ś). This palatalisation, however, requires the suffix form to be unsyllabic /i̯/ naχsi̯om rather than /ii̯/ as expected in the short word form. In 1987: 501, Lejeune alternatively proposed (in essence) a derivation from PIE *h₂ed- 'dry' with privative suffix *n̥-h₂d-tom > *nātsom 'never running dry'. Similarly, but without reference to Lejeune's second theory, Birkhan 2005: 225–227 also preferred a tau gallicum sound underlying san, and reconstructed *nHd-tom 'bound, wound' (from the root *neHd- 'to bind, tie' as in OIr. nascaid, MBret. nasca 'id.', see KP: 489). Both the latter solutions are formally feasible (cf. on Birkhan Stifter 2011b: 175 f., n. 22).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Birkhan 2005	Helmut Birkhan, "UINOM NAŚOM", in: Franziska Beutler, Wolfgang Hameter (Eds.), "Eine ganz normale Inschrift" ... Vnd ähnLiches zVm GebVrtstag von Ekkehard Weber. Festschrift zum 30. April 2005 [= Althistorisch-Epigraphische Studien 5], Wien: Eigenverlag der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Archäologie 2005, 223-228.