Those City Names Come From WHAT Language?! #language #linguistics

Do you know where the city names "Paris", "Vienna", "Zurich", or "Milan" come from? If not, watch this video to find out! You'll discover a whole other branch of ancient languages separate from the usual Latin or Greek!

Maybe this short will inspire you to create a long-lost language for a worldbuilding project, a language that only reveals itself through cryptic hints in the name of cities.

If you're interested in the Celtic languages, watch this short to learn more about that fascinating branch of the Indo-European family tree!

Do you want to see more conlanging and linguistics content? Be sure to visit my website:

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#toponomy #vienna #gaulish #celtic #celticlanguages

[ParchmentLore]

Thanks for watching! If you have any questions or comments, put them in this comment section! Until next time, friends!

[simoneamaro]

Now i understand why there is a bank called Mediolanum and the publicity is always them in the middle of a field

[georghauer]

I would have assumed that Vienna comes from “Vindobona.” Vindobona was a Celtic settlement before becoming a Roman military camp and town. The name is thought to be derived from the Celtic word “windo, ” meaning “white, ” and “bona, ” meaning “base” or “fortified settlement.”

[juliandixey]

It's interesting that Milan comes from "mediolānum, " in Latin from Gaulish "medio" and and in the gaulish language that might have meant "middle field" because in Spanish "medio" and "llanura" mean "middle" and "field." Maybe they came from Gaulish to Latin? Or are they actually Latin ?

[MadhanBhavani]

So, it is totally unrelated to the Greek epic character?

[jodygrottino]

The fact that Vienna, a very sophisticated and intellectual city, has a name that means "wild" indeed. 😅

[Meftu]

You completely over exaggerated the distribution of Cornish and Scottish Gaelic in that map. Southwestern Scotland for example never spoke Gaelic.

[douggieeeee]

great short! small note: when referring to scottish gaelic, it’s actually pronounced like “gallic” (rhymes with “phallic” lol). this reflects the endonym for the language: gàidhlig or a’ ghàidhlig

[gheorghitaalsunculitei]

I find it intresting that "lanum" in "Mediolanum" stands for field. In Romanian we have the the word "lan" for an area cultivated with the same crop ex: "lan de grâu" (wheat field)

[fuzzyhippos]

I thought Vienna was named after wine for the vineyards growing within the city walls?

[alessiorenzoni]

🇮🇹🤔MEDIOLANUM / MILAN (Etruscan origin of the toponym)
Many authors have been interested in the etymology or origin and meaning of the toponym Milan. More precisely they looked for the exact origin and the exact meaning of its ancient Latin form Mediolanum. For it, everyone found themselves in full agreement on its actual meaning and indicated it as "median or central city", given that this is its real position in the Po Valley, at the crossroads of roads and rivers of the entire surrounding area. The disagreements between the authors instead concerned the linguistic and phonetic structure of Mediolanum.
The last explanation that seems to have found agreement among everyone is the one that G. B. Pellegrini (TopIt 110) summarized in the following way: «It is a Gallic compound with medio 'mezzo' (cf. lat. medius, got. midjis and lanum, equivalent of planum (IEW 806), with the well-known loss of initial p- typical of Celtic».
Despite the high esteem I had for this esteemed colleague and dear friend, I raise the following objections to his explanation: I) "Compound or composite toponyms", i.e. made up of two parts, the first of a language (e.g. the lat. medius) and the second of another (e.g. the Celtic or Gaulish (p)lanum) certainly exist, but are rather rare. II) Even in linguistics, between two or more hypotheses one has the duty or at least the interest to opt for the simpler and more obvious one. And I am actually able to present a simpler and more obvious hypothesis than Pellegrini's. III) Since it is almost certain that the Etruscans spread at the beginning of the 8th century BC. C. in the Po Valley and in the valleys of the Alpine arc, founding or occupying cities such as Modena, Mantua, Parma, Bergamo, Varallo Sesia, Chiavenna, Verona, Belluno, Vipiteno etc., it is absurd to believe that they did not also have an interest in 'very important inhabited center of Milan long before the Gauls, who instead arrived in the Po Valley two centuries later, that is, at the beginning of the 6th century. to. C. (T. Livio, Ab Urbe condita libri, V, 34).
Having said all this, I would like to recall the frequent linguistic phenomenon of the exchange of toponyms with anthroponyms, that is, place names with personal names and vice versa: e.g. the Italian surnames Ferrara, Modena and Verona derive from the respective cities from which the owners were originally from; the toponyms Cécina, Cesena and Ravenna derive from the surnames of the original owners of a predio or a farmhouse or a workshop or a factory.
Having done this, I present the first name and the feminine surname. Etruscan LARΘI MEΘLNA, ΘANA MEΘLNE (ThLE²), which can certainly be interpreted as the ethnic female. Mediolanensis «(Lartia) Mediolania» and «(Thana) Mediolania» or also as «Medioleia», female. of the Latin Gentile Medioleius (RNG). Well, I point out and underline that between Lat. Mediolanum and the ethr. MEΘLNA there is a total equality of the phonemes, which are six and therefore very consistent in the etymological comparisons of multiple words (the Etruscan-Latin correspondence Θ/D is well known; LLE norm 4).
And not only that, but the equality of five phonemes between Mediolanum and the Lat name is also worthy of note. medulla «marrow», which must obviously be explained as «median or central substance of the bone».
As can easily be seen, the initial consonant /p-/ of the Celtic planum does not appear at all in my speech.
And the logical conclusion of the discussion seems to me to be this: Mediolanum is not at all a composite toponym, i.e. made up of a Latin part and a Celtic part, but it is a unitary toponym, even if of Etruscan and Latin formation, first Etruscan and after Latin. And above all there is nothing Celtic or Gallic about the toponym.
A final but important consideration must be made: it seems very likely to me that the "name" of the city of Milan can be attributed to the Etruscan invaders of the Po Valley; the "name", but not the "foundation" of the inhabited center, which instead could have been carried out by some other previous people (Camuni or Leponzi or Ligurians?). The fact that the name of the Etruscans was imposed and established is a circumstance that is entirely congruent with the role of great acculturators that the Etruscans exercised throughout Italy, including in the Po Valley; suffice it to say that they exported the Etruscan language or at least the Etruscan writing everywhere. And it is quite certain that writing always and everywhere contributes enormously to the stabilization and conservation of toponyms.
Massimo Pittau, 2018

[XPRTR]

A connection AMONG them. Not "between" them!!

[rubensesposito]

nemo potest romanorum exercito effugere

[wouterd]

Could Vienna be named after the Wends, as in the earliest slavic people? I think it’s also where the “-venia” in “Slovenia” comes from