Date:

Wed, 28 Apr 2004

From:

 "Angus Huck" <ajh5743@yahoo.co.uk>  

Subject:

Basque gune/une "place, interval"

Dear Luisma,

Basque gune/une "place, interval"

I have given several examples of this element in Iberian place-names: eg, Lakune/Lakine/Lekuine < *lako-gune "temple place", Iljunberri < *ilji-gune-berri "new settlement place", Asegone < *ase-gone "tree place", etc.

There are one or two UK place-names which may also incorporate this element.

First and foremost are the three Roman settlements in the Welsh Marches region: Ariconium, Viriconium and Uxacona.

All three probably originated as hill names.

Ariconium is generally taken to be Weston-under-Penyard, Hereford & Worcester, and survives in the deanery name, Archenfield.

It may well have referred to Penyard Hill, or the neighbouring hill above Ross-on-Wye, where there are exposed sections of sandstone.

The name could be *arri-kone "rock place".

The ruins of Viriconium can still be seen on the banks of the Severn near the village known as Wroxeter. There is also a hill not far away knows as the Wrekin.

So what does viri- mean?

Two possibilities come to mind.

(1) A cognate of Basque biurri "bent, curved" (Iberian *biur). The town was situated on a huge bend in the River Severn.

(2) A cognate of Basque biro "crop of a bird's neck", a reference perhaps to the shape of the hill (The Wrekin).

Uxacona, now the village of Red Hill, is - as its modern name suggests - located on top of a prominent hill.

uxa- is possibly a metathesis of a cognate of Basque ozka "cleft, fissure" - as in Osca (modern Huesca).

The remaining example is the Cornish place-name, Tregony.

tre- is, of course, a Cornish word meaning "settlement". -gony is a complete mystery, unless we accept a Dene-Caucasian explanation, that is.

So, in the primaeval language of Britain, *kone may have meant "place", or more specifically, "place on a hill".

With best wishes,

Angus J Huck