INNSBRUCKER BEITRÄGE ZUR SPRACHWISSENSCHAFT

Recently published as Vol. 152:

BLANCA MARIA PRÓSPER:
THE INDO-EUROPEAN NAMES OF CENTRAL HISPANIA.
A Study in Continental Celtic and Latin Word Formation.
2016. 237 pp. € 40.00. ISBN 978-3-85124-739-8.
This volume contains a novel study of the Celtic dialects of the ancient Hispania
which is mostly based on the personal, ethnic and divine names attested in Latin
epigraphy in the territories traditionally ascribed to Cantabri, Autrigones, Turmogi,
Pelendones, Arevaci and Olcades, with occasional references to neighbouring areas. It
responds to the increasing expectations aroused by the current advances in the research
of the European Trümmersprachen, and kindled by constant findings in the field of
onomastics and a substantial number of indigenous texts.
As is well known, onomastics is a difficult area for a number of reasons: Its object is
by its own nature deprived of either syntactic context, appurtenance to a paradigm or
meaning, and this in turn compromises the validity of any claims concerning not only
the etymology but also the dialectal ascription of names. This shortcoming will
probably never be satisfactorily overcome, but it may be partially compensated by a
more refined formalist approach that encompasses a very strict phonetic and
morphological analysis and adopts a broad comparative scope.
In this vein, and in contrast to former works in this area, the goal of this study is not
restricted to the establishment of root etymologies and the listing of suffixes, but treats
words as a whole. In order to do this, it focuses on questions of word formation in Celtic
perspective and remarks upon the regional distribution of phonetic differences and
onomastic habits inside Hispano-Celtic. In addition, it seeks to place these names within
a broader frame, especially attending to inheritance from former stages (Common Celtic
or even Italo-Celtic) which has occasionally been lost in the better known Insular Celtic
dialects, to differences and similarities with the Italic languages including Latin, and,
more generally, to the consequences of some formational patterns for the reconstruction
of the Indo-European protolanguage.

INNSBRUCKER BEITRÄGE ZUR SPRACHWISSENSCHAFT

Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität
Bereich Sprachwissenschaft
6020 Innsbruck, Austria, Innrain 52
Telefax: (+43-512) 507-2837
E-Mail: wolfgang.meid@uibk.ac.at