Northmen as 'mGall'

[Rick Mc Callister]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

[snip]

	I've read in various places about the Belgae invading Britain
[present East Anglia, I think] shortly before the time of Caesar. Some
writers speculate about a link between the Belgae and the Firbolg
--although I suspect bVlg may be a recurring name in this case

>><<I strongly suspect - as many others - that the Belgae were Brythonic (their
>>name seems related to Welsh 'balch', Eng. 'proud' - maybe another candidate
>>for the origin of 'walch', as a name for the Belgae, I mean???). >>

[snip]

>Urt(h)e can also be explained as 'water area', since the suffix -te has
>various meanings, all related to space and time 'intervals'), and a ford in
>the river Ourthe called 'Tibièwé' (possibly *tibi-a-wé´. Walloon wé
>= Fr. gué, Eng. ford.  Bq. ibi = ford, and in Basque [not in this case]
>and Iberian doublets with and without initial t are quite common).  Of course,
>I cannot prove this in any way: I just present it for your information.

	Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but isn't French gue/ from Latin
vadum, which looks as if it's a borrowing from a Germanic cognate of
English wade [or else a very cognate-looking cognate]

[snip]
>
>>(One can however compare the attested -pe ending in the early continental
>>Lapontic Celtic, equivalent to -que in Latin.  This might actually bring
>>Goidelic closer to Latin than Lapontic on the p/q scale.)

	But Italic also had its p/q dichotomy, as does Romance to an extent
BTW: How common is this dichotomy among world languages? Is it equally
common all over or just common in Western IE? The only other instance I can
think is possibly Iraqi Arabic
[snip]

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701

[ Moderator 8- to 7-bit transcription:

>Urt(h)e can also be explained as 'water area', since the suffix -te has
>various meanings, all related to space and time 'intervals'), and a ford in
>the river Ourthe called 'Tibi{\`e}w{\'e}' (possibly *tibi-a-w{\'e}'. Walloon
>w{\'e} = Fr. gu{\'e}, Eng. ford.  Bq. ibi = ford, and in Basque [not in
>this case] and Iberian doublets with and without initial t are quite common).
>Of course, I cannot prove this in any way: I just present it for your
>information.