Publication details
Onomastic Evidence for Early Germanic and Celtic Contact in Central Europe
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Revisiting Dispersions - Celtic and Germanic ca. 400BC - ca. 400 AD. Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference held at Dolenjski muzej, Novo mesto, Slovenia (October 12-14, 2018) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | toponym; Ptolemy; Goegraphy; coordinates; etymology |
| Description | The present study provides an etymological analysis of toponyms collected by Ptolemy from Northeast Europe, as known to him in the mid-second cent. CE. The territory studied roughly corresponds to contemporary Poland and part of the Czech Republic. The following conclusions were formulated: In the area enclosed by the 36th longitude, the 48th latitude, the south coast of the Baltic sea and the Vistula river, 42 place-names (not including hydro-, oro- and ethnonyms) are mentioned in Ptolemy’s work. Two of these are of Latin origin, one is probably of Greek origin, in one case the Baltic etymology seems most promising and two-three toponyms may be ascribed to the so-called ‘Old European’ substratum. Of the remaining 36 terms the share of the Celtic and Germanic toponyms is 23 : 13. The northernmost border of probable Celtic toponyms in the area of contemporary Poland may be determined between the 54th and 53rd latitudes (c. 53o30'). |
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