Celtic influence

[Rossi Francesco Luigi]

Further to Shilpi M. Badra's message on Saturday, 27 February 1999
on Celtic loanwords in Romance, I would like to contribute the
following on Italian, and especially the Northern Italian dialects
(Gallo-Italic) and Friulan.
1)
Place-names in Northern Italy (former Cisalpine Gaul):
Milan (Mediolanum), Bologna (Bononia, Etruscan: Felsina), and many others.
2)
Latinized -dunum (Irish dun -`fortress'):
Duno (Varese), Induno (Varese), Comenduno (Bergamo), Verduno (Cuneo), ...
and others
3)
Formations ending in -ac :
Arsago, Barzago, Cadorago, Dalrago, ... Sumirago, Tregnago, Urago, in
Lombardy alone.
This ending in common all over Northern Italy.
In the Friulan area, the ending is rendered in standard Italian as -acco:
e.g., Premariacco (Udine).
4)
Terminology:
Lat. camisiam > It. camicia, Lat. caballam > It. cavallo; Lat carrum > It.
carro
and the Lat verb cambiare > It. cambiare
5)
Celtic survivals of northern and central Iberia:
Sp., Port.alamo `poplar', Cf. It. olmo
Sp., Port. gancho `hook', Cf. It. gancio
6)
Sound change from Latin u to French y:
All gallo-italic dialects except that of Romagna and certain mountain
areas,
e.g., Piedmontese, Emilian, Lombard: myr
This sound does not occur in Friulan (despite the presumable Celtic
substrate: Carnii),
but it does occur in other forms of Rhaeto-Romance, e.g. Vallader (Lower
Engadine).
The sound does not occur in Venetian and related dialects (with IE Venetic
substrate).
7)
Consonantal groups:
Piedmontese, Emilian, Lombard: factum > fait, fat, fac ("c" pron. "ch" as
in English or Spanish)
Piedmontese, Emilian, Lombard: noctem > neuit (read "eu" as in French),
not, noc ("c" pron. "ch" as in English or Spanish):
8)
Nasal consonants:
pan, man, bon, ...
with pure nasalisation in some areas, Emilia for example, and varying
degrees of nasalisation elsewhere.

Bibliography:

Giovan Battista Pellegrini, Toponomastica italiana. MIlan: Hoepli. 1990

Maurizio Dardano, Manueletto di linguistica italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli,
1991

Frank Rossi
Bergamo, Italy
iglesias at axia.it