ueriounos
| Attestation: | BI·4 (esonius:urenti/akitu:esonius/ueriounos) (1) |
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| Language: | Celtic |
| Word Type: | proper noun |
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| Grammatical Categories: | unclear sg. masc. |
| Stem Class: | ? |
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| Morphemic Analysis: | °-os or °-onos |
| Phonemic Analysis: | /u̯eri̯ou̯nos/ (?) |
| Meaning: | 'Ueriounos' or '(son) of Ueriu' (?) |
Commentary
See the inscription page on the uncertain text structure. There are two options for the analysis of the name, both problematic:
1. o-stem nominative, supported by the comparanda ueriounia (Latin inscription no. 47 at the same find place, see Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013), ueriounus, ueriouna in Latin inscriptions from the area of Torino (Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 47 f., 156 f.). The analysis of such a name is unclear; an agentive in -mon-/-mn- *u̯eri̯-omn-os suggests itself, but lacks a corresponding verbal base u̯eri̯o- in Celtic (maybe PIE *u̯er- 'defend'?).
2. on-stem genitive, supported by the attestation of Latinised *u̯eri̯ō (uerionis f.) in the Latin inscription no. 9 at the same find place (see Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013 and further Latin inscriptions from the Celtic area (Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 54, n. 11). The spelling ⟨ou⟩ of the first /o/ of the ending requires explanation – hypothetically, one could reconstruct *u̯eri̯ou̯o- with an adjectival u̯o-suffix (cf. equally dubious kasiuos) and assume irregular syncope of the stem vowel in the on-stem genitive u̯eri̯ou̯onos > u̯eri̯ou̯nos, but this is mere speculation.
The majority of Gaulish names in u̯erV- are likely to contain the preverb u̯er- 'over' in some form (suffixed, hypocoristic, ..), which agrees well with neither of the above analyses.
David Stifter, Corinna Salomon
Bibliography
| Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013 | Giovannella Cresci Marrone, Patrizia Solinas, Microstorie di romanizzazione. Le iscrizioni del sepolcreto rurale di Cerrione, Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari 2013. |
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