nant-

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Type:	lexical
Meaning:	'valley'
Language:	Celtic
Phonemic analysis:	/nant/-
From PIE:	*nm̥-tu/o- 'slope'/'sloping'
From Proto-Celtic:	*nantu/o- 'valley'
Attestation:	natom

Commentary

An element nant-, variously as an i-, u- or o-stem, is attested in numerous Gaulish toponyms (e.g. nantiacum > Nantey) and hydronyms, in the ethnonym nantuates, the theonym AE 1907: 201 nantosuelte (dat.), and a few personal names such as CIL XIII 5485 nantiorix, RIIG ALL-01-01 (RIG L-6) na⁽nt⁾o⁽n{t}⁾icn(os). There are also lexical Gaulish attestations, notably RIG L-49 nantou, L-69 div., and in Enderlicher's glossary 613.8 nanto gl. ualle, trinanto gl. tres ualles (see AcS II: 684–688, GPN: 236 f., DLG: 231 f., Delamarre 2007: 228 et passim, Lambert 1994: 203). With regard to the glosses, the o-stem and the u-stem as in nantuates 'those of the valley', L-49 nantou[s] (gen.sg.) 'of the valley' were connected with MW nant, OCorn. nans 'valley, watercourse, stream', which do not allow conclusions about the stem vowel, and derived from the PIE root *nem- 'bend, incline' (tu-abstract or to-participle, conceivably coexisting in Gaulish, cf. Stüber 2005: 110) by KGP: 247 f. and GPN: 236 f. Hamp 1976: 14 keeps the u/o-stem separate from an i-stem especially in personal names, which he connects with OIr. néit 'battle' as per LEIA: N-7 (see also Irslinger 2002: 226, Matasović 2009: 283).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

AcS	Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907.
AE	Various authors, L'année épigraphique, Paris: 1888–.
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.