Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:40:19.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Linguistic Evidence for ‘Romanization’: Continuity and Change in Romano-British Onomastics: A Study of the Epigraphic Record with Particular Reference to Bath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Alex Mullen
Alex Mullen
Affiliation:
Jesus College, University of Cambridge, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Based on a new online database of Celtic personal names, this research demonstrates how the study of Romano-British onomastics can shed light on the complexities of linguistic and cultural contacts, complementing archaeological material and literary sources. After an introductory section on methodology, Part One analyses naming formulae and expressions of filiation as evidence for both continuity and change dependent on social and geographical factors. Confusion and contamination between the Latin and Celtic systems proved much less common than on the Continent, where earlier contact with Roman culture and the written tradition for Continental Celtic occasionally facilitated an unusual form of syncretism. Part Two examines the naming formulae attested at Roman Bath and the mechanisms by which Celts adopted Latin names. The case-study of Bath relates continuity and change in both naming formulae and nomenclature to an acceptance of, or resistance to, ‘Romanization’ in Britain.

Keywords

onomasticsnaming formulaefiliationLatinCelticRoman BathRomanization
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 38 , November 2007 , pp. 35 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Alex Mullen 2007. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, J.N. 1992: ‘British Latin: the text, interpretation and language of the Bath curse tablets’, Britannia 23, 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, J.N. 1995: ‘The Latin of the Vindolanda writing-tablets: an interim report’, JRS 85, 86–134Google Scholar
Adams, J.N. 2003a: Bilingualism and the Latin Language, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, J.N. 2003b: ‘The new Vindolanda writing-tablets’, CQ 53.2, 530–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albertos Firmat, M.L. 1983: ‘Onomastique personnelle indigène de la Péninsule Ibérique sous ladomination romaine’, ANRW II 29.2, 853–92Google Scholar
Anreiter, P., Haslinger, M., and Roider, U. 2000: ‘The names of the eastern Alpine region mentioned in Ptolemy’, in Parsons, D.N. and Sims-Williams, P. (eds), Ptolemy. Towards a Linguistic Atlas of the Earliest Celtic Place-Namesof Europe, Aberystwyth, 113–42Google Scholar
Audollent, A. 1904: Defxionum Tabellae, ParisGoogle Scholar
Ball, M.J., and Fife, J. (eds) 1993: The Celtic Languages, London and New YorkGoogle Scholar
Bammesberger, A., and Wollmann, A. (eds) 1990: Britain 400–600: Language and History, HeidelbergGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J.C. 1997: ‘Romanization: a critical comment’, in Mattingly 1997, 27–50Google Scholar
Beltrán Lloris, F. 1999: ‘Writing, language and society: Iberians, Celts and Romans in Northeastern Spain inthe second and first centuries BC’, BICS 43, 131–51Google Scholar
Birley, A. 1979: The People of Roman Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Biró, M. 1973: ‘The Roman inscriptions of Britain’, Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 27, 13–58Google Scholar
Blagg, T. 1990: ‘First-century Roman houses in Gaul and Britain’, in Blagg and Millett 1990, 194–209Google Scholar
Blagg, T., and King, A.C. (eds) 1984: Military and Civilian in Roman Britain. Cultural Relationships in a Frontier Province, BAR Brit. Ser. 136, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blagg, T., and Millett, M. (eds) 1990: The Early Roman Empire in the West, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Bodel, J.P. (ed.) 2001: Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions, London/New YorkGoogle Scholar
Bowman, A.K. 1991: ‘Literacy in the Roman Empire: mass and mode’, in Humphrey, J.H. (ed.), Literacy in the Roman World, Ann Arbor, MI, 119–31Google Scholar
Bowman, A.K. 1994: ‘The Roman imperial army: letters and literacy on the northern frontier’, in Bowman, A.K. and Woolf, G. (eds), Literacy and Power in the Ancient World, Cambridge, 109–25Google Scholar
Brandt, R., and Slofstra, J. 1983: Roman and Native in the Low Countries, BAR Inter. Ser. 184, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Cepas, A. 1989: The North of Britannia and the North-West of Hispania. An Epigraphic Comparison, BAR Inter. Ser. 470, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Charles-Edwards, T.M. 1984: Review of N., Brooks (ed.), Latin and the Vernacular Languages in Early Medieval Britain, in JRS 74, 252–4Google Scholar
Cooley, A.E. (ed.) 2002: Becoming Roman, Writing Latin? Literacy and Epigraphy in the Roman West, Portsmouth, Rhode IslandGoogle Scholar
Creighton, J. 2000: Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, D. 2000: Language Death, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W. 1984: Roman Bath Discovered (revised edn), LondonGoogle Scholar
De Bernardo Stempel, P. 1991: ‘Die Sprache altbritannischer Münzlegenden’, ZCP 44, 36–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Bhaldraithe, T. 1990: ‘Notes on the diminutive suffx -in in Modern Irish’, in Matonis, A.T.E. and Melia, D.F., Celtic Language, Celtic Culture: A Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp, California, 85–95Google Scholar
De Hoz, J., Luján, E.R., and Sims-Williams, P. (eds) 2005: New Approaches to Celtic Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography, MadridGoogle Scholar
Dobson, B., and Mann, J.C. 1973: ‘The Roman army in Britain and Britons in the Roman army’, Britannia 4, 191–205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dondin-Payre, M., and Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-T. (eds) 2001a: Noms, identités culturelles et Romanisation sous le Haut-Empire, BrusselsGoogle Scholar
Dondin-Payre, M., and Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-T. 2001b: ‘L’Onomastique dans l'empire romain: questions, méthodes, enjeux’, in Dondin-Payre and Raepsaet-Charlier 2001a, i–viiiGoogle Scholar
Dottin, G. 1920: La Langue gauloise, ParisGoogle Scholar
Eska, J.F., and Evans, D.E. 1993: ‘Continental Celtic’, in Ball and Fife 1993, 26–63Google Scholar
Evans, D.E. 1964: ‘Some Celtic personal names in the Commentaries on the Gallic War’, BBCS 21, 1–17Google Scholar
Evans, D.E. 1967: Gaulish Personal Names. A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Evans, D.E. 1972: ‘A comparison of the formation of some Continental and Early Insular Celtic personal names’, BBCS 24.4, 415–34Google Scholar
Evans, D.E. 1983: ‘Language contact in pre-Roman and Roman Britain’, ANRW 29.2, 949–87Google Scholar
Evans, D.E. 1994: ‘Some remarks on the study of Old Celtic proper names’, in Bielmeier, R., Stempel, R. and Lanszweert, R. (eds), Indogermanica et Caucasica. Festschrift für Karl Horst Schmidt, Berlin, 306–15Google Scholar
Evans, J. 1987: ‘Graffti and the evidence of literacy and pottery use in Roman Britain’, Arch. Journ. 144, 191–204Google Scholar
Fleuriot, L. 1977: ‘Le Vocabulaire de l'inscription gauloise de Chamaliéres’, EC 15, 173–90Google Scholar
Fleuriot, L. 1980: ‘La Tablette de Chamaliéres. Nouveaux commentaires’, EC 17, 145–59Google Scholar
Flobert, P. 1992: ‘Les Grafftes de La Graufesenque: un témoignage sur le gallo-latin sous Néron’, in Iliescu, M. and Marxgut, W. (eds), Latin vulgaire–latin tardif III: Actes du IIIème colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif, Tübingen, 103–14Google Scholar
Freeman, P.W.M. 1997: ‘Mommsen through to Haverfeld: the origins of Romanization studies in late nineteenth-century Britain’, in Mattingly 1997, 27–50Google Scholar
Gorrochategui, J. 1990: ‘Consideraciones sobre la fórmula onomástica y la expresión del origen en algunos textos celtibéricos menores’, in Villar, F. (ed.), Studia indogermanica et palaeohispanica in honorem A. Tovar et L. Michelena, Salamanca, 291–312Google Scholar
Gratwick, A.S. 1982: ‘Latinitas Britannica: Was British Latin archaic?’, in Brooks, N.P. (ed.), Latin and the Vernacular Languages in Early Medieval Britain, Leicester, 1–79Google Scholar
Green, M. 1986: The Gods of the Celts, GloucesterGoogle Scholar
Green, M.J.A., and Raybould, M.E. 1999: ‘Deities with gallo-British names’, Studia Celtica 33, 91–135Google Scholar
Hamp, E.P. 1975: ‘Social gradience in British spoken Latin’, Britannia 6, 150–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, W.S. 1997: ‘Forces of change and methods of control’, in Mattingly 1997, 67–80Google Scholar
Hanson, W.S., and Conolly, R. 2002: ‘Language and literacy in Roman Britain: some archaeological considerations’, in Cooley 2002, 151–64Google Scholar
Haverfeld, F. 1923: The Romanization of Roman Britain (4th edn), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Henig, M. 1984: Religion in Roman Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Henry, P.L. 1984: ‘Interpreting the Gaulish inscription of Chamalières’, EC 21, 141–50Google Scholar
Hingley, R. 1997: ‘Resistance and domination: social change in Roman Britain’, in Mattingly 1997, 81–100Google Scholar
Holder, A. 1896–1913: Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, LeipzigGoogle Scholar
Holder, P.A. 1982: The Roman Army in Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hornblower, S., and Matthews, E. (eds) 2000: Greek Personal Names: their Value as Evidence, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Ingemark, D. 2000: ‘Literacy in Roman Britain: the epigraphical evidence’, Opuscula Romana 25–26, 19–30Google Scholar
Jackson, K. 1953: Language and History in Early Britain, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Jones, G.D.B. 1997: ‘From Brittunculi to Wounded Knee: a study in the development of ideas’, in Mattingly 1997, 185–200Google Scholar
Kaimio, J. 1975: ‘The ousting of Etruscan by Latin in Etruria’, in Bruun, P. (ed.), Studies in the Romanization of Etruria, Rome, 85–245Google Scholar
Kajanto, I. 1965: ‘The Latin cognomina’, Societas Scientiarum Fennica. Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 36.2, 1–418Google Scholar
Kajava, M. 1994: Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women, RomeGoogle Scholar
King, A. 1990: ‘The emergence of Romano-Celtic religion’, in Blagg and Millett 1990, 220–41Google Scholar
Koch, J.T. 1992: ‘“gallo-Brittonic” versus “Insular Celtic”: the inter-relationships of the Celtic languages reconsidered’, in Le Menn, G. and Le Moing, J.-Y. (eds), Bretagne et pays celtiques, langues, histoire, civilisation, mélanges offerts à la mémoire de Léon Fleuriot, Rennes, 471–96Google Scholar
Kretschmer, P. 1943: ‘Die raetischen Elemente im Lepontischen und westlichen Oberitalien’, Glotta 30, 197–203Google Scholar
Kurylowicz, J. 1960: ‘La Position linguistique du nom propre’, in Hamp, E.P., Joos, M., Householder, F.W. and Austerlitz, R., Readings in Linguistics II, Chicago, 362–70Google Scholar
Lambert, P.-Y. 1979: ‘La Tablette gauloise de Chamalières’, EC 16, 141–69Google Scholar
Lambert, P.-Y. 1987: ‘A restatement on the Gaulish tablet from Chamalières’, BBCS 34, 10–17Google Scholar
Lambert, P.-Y. 2003: La Langue gauloise (3rd edn), ParisGoogle Scholar
Le Glay, M. 1977: ‘Remarques sur l'onomastique gallo-romaine’, in Pfaum and Duval 1977, 269–77Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. 1971: ‘Documents gaulois et para-gaulois de Cisalpine. Lepontica’, EC 12.2, 357–500Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. 1977: ‘La Romanisation des anthroponymies indigènes d'Italie’, in Pflaum and Duval 1977, 35–41Google Scholar
Lejeune, M., Fleuriot, L., Lambert, P.-Y., Marichal, R., and Vernhet, A. 1985: ‘Textes gaulois et gallo-romains en cursive latine. III Le plomb de Larzac’, EC 22, 95–177Google Scholar
Luján, E.R. 2003: ‘Gaulish personal names: an update’, EC 35, 181–247Google Scholar
Macalister, R.A.S. 1945, 1949: Corpus inscriptionum insularum celticarum, DublinGoogle Scholar
Mann, J.C. 1971: ‘Spoken Latin in Britain as evidenced in the inscriptions’, Britannia 2, 218–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marichal, R. 1988: Les Graffites de La Graufesenque, ParisGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. (ed.) 1997: Dialogues in Roman Imperialism. Power, Discourse, and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire, Portsmouth, Rhode IslandGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. 1997: ‘Dialogues of power and experience in the Roman Empire’, in Mattingly 1997, 7–24Google Scholar
Mayer, M. 2002: ‘El proceso de adopción de la fórmula onomástica romana’, Palaeohispanica 2, 189–200Google Scholar
McCone, K. 1996: Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change, MaynoothGoogle Scholar
McManus, D. 1997: A Guide to Ogam, MaynoothGoogle Scholar
Meid, W. 1992: Gaulish Inscriptions, BudapestGoogle Scholar
Meissner, T. 2004: ‘Zum gallischen Zahlwort für “erster” — ein indirekter Zeuge?’, Historische Sprachforschung 117.1, 97–100Google Scholar
Metzler, J., Millett, M., Roymans, N., and Slofstra, J. (eds) 1995: Integration in the Early Roman West, LuxembourgGoogle Scholar
Millett, M. 1990a: The Romanization of Britain. An Essay in Archaeological Interpretation, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Millett, M. 1990b: ‘Romanization: historical issues and archaeological interpretation’, in Blagg and Millett 1990, 35–41Google Scholar
Millett, M. 1995: ‘Re-thinking religion in Romanization’, in Metzler, et al. 1995, 93–100Google Scholar
Millett, M., Roymans, N., and Slofstra, J. 1995: ‘Integration, Culture and Ideology in the Early Roman West’, in Metzler, et al. 1995, 1–5Google Scholar
MLH = Untermann, J. 1997: Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum IV. Die tartessischen, keltiberischen und lusitanischen Inschriften, WiesbadenGoogle Scholar
Morpurgo Davies, A. 2000: ‘Greek personal names and linguistic continuity’, in Hornblower, and Matthews, 2000, 15–39Google Scholar
Morris, J. 1963: ‘Changing fashions in Roman nomenclature in the early Empire’, Listy Filologické 86, 34–46Google Scholar
Motta, F. 1993: ‘Die Namenformeln im Altkeltischen’, in Untermann, J. and Villar, F. (eds), Lengua y cultura en la Hispania prerromana. Actas del V coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas prerromanas de la Península Ibérica, Salamanca, 697–718Google Scholar
Mullen, A.L. 2004: ‘Literacy in the Roman Empire: the evidence from Vindolanda’, unpub. M.Phil. essay, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Mullen, A.L. 2007: ‘Evidence for written Celtic from Roman Britain: a linguistic analysis of Tabellae Sulis 14 and 18’, Studia Celtica 41Google Scholar
Nash, D. 1987: Coinage in the Celtic World, LondonGoogle Scholar
Nash-Williams, V.E. 1950: The Early Christian Monuments of Wales, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Neumann, G. 1993: ‘Lateinisches in der gallischen Inschrift von Larzac’, in Meiser, G. (ed.), Indogermanica et Italica, Festschrift für Helmut Rix, Innsbruck, 340–6Google Scholar
O'Brien, M.A. 1973: ‘Old Irish personal names’, Celtica 10, 211–36Google Scholar
O'Brien, M.A. (ed.) 1962: Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae Vol. I, DublinGoogle Scholar
Orel, V. 1997: ‘Gaulish DONA’, Studia Celtica 31, 227–79Google Scholar
Parsons, D.N., and Sims-Williams, P. (eds) 2000: Ptolemy. Towards a Linguistic Atlas of the Earliest Celtic Place-Names of Europe, AberystwythGoogle Scholar
Pfaum, M.H.-G., and Duval, M.N. (eds) 1977: L'Onomastique latine, ParisGoogle Scholar
PID = Conway, R.S., Whatmough, J., and Johnson, S.E. 1933: The Prae-Italic Dialects of Italy 3 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Polomé, E.C. 1983: ‘The linguistic situation in the Western provinces of the Roman Empire’, ANRW 29.2, 554–86Google Scholar
Raybould, M.E. 1999: A Study of Inscribed Material from Roman Britain. An Inquiry into some Aspects of Literacy in Romano-British Society, BAR Brit. Ser. 281, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
RIG = Colbert de Beaulieu, J.-B., Duval, P.-M., Fischer, B., Lejeune, M., Lambert, P.-Y., and Pinault, G. 1985—: Recueil des inscriptions gauloises, Paris Vols I, II.1, II.2, IIIGoogle Scholar
Rivet, A.L.F. 1980: ‘Celtic names and Roman places’, Britannia 11, 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivet, A.L.F., and Smith, C. 1979: The Place-Names of Roman Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Rix, H. 1956: ‘Die Personennamen auf den etruskisch-lateinischen Bilinguen’, BNF 7, 147–72Google Scholar
Rix, H. 1972: ‘Zum Ursprung des römisch-mittelitalischen Gentilnamensystems’, ANRW 1.2, 700–758Google Scholar
Rix, H. 1995: ‘Etruskische Personennamen’, in Eichler, E. (ed.), Namenforschung: ein internationales Handbuch zur onomastik, Berlin, Vol. I, 719–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, P. 1985: ‘Recent work in British Latin’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 9, 19–29Google Scholar
Russell, P. 1990: Celtic Word Formation: The Velar Suffxes, DublinGoogle Scholar
Russell, P. 1995: An Introduction to the Celtic Languages, LondonGoogle Scholar
Russell, P. 2001: ‘Patterns of hypocorism in early Irish hagiography’, in Carey, J., Herbert, M. and Óriain, P., Saints and Scholars. Studies in Irish Hagiography, Dublin, 237–49Google Scholar
Russell, P. 2005: ‘“What was best of every language”: the early history of the Irish language’, in Cróinín, D. Ó (ed.), A New History of Ireland. I Prehistoric and Early Ireland, Dublin, 405–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salway, B. 1994: ‘What's in a name? A survey of Roman onomastic practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700’, JRS 84, 124–45Google Scholar
Schmidt, K.H. 1957: Die Komposition in gallischen Personennamen, TübingenCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, K.H. 1981: ‘The Gaulish inscription of Chamalières’, BBCS 29, 256–68Google Scholar
Schmidt, K.H. 1990: ‘Zum Plomb du Larzac’, in Matonis, A.T.E. and Melia, D.F., Celtic Language, Celtic Culture: A Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp, California, 16–25Google Scholar
Schmidt, K.H. 1992: ‘La Romanité des îles britanniques’, in Kremer, D. (ed.), Actes du XVIIIe congrès international de linguistique et de philologie romanes. Université de Trèves, Tübingen, Vol. I, 188–210Google Scholar
Schmidt, K.H. 1993: ‘Insular Celtic: P and Q Celtic’, in Ball and Fife 1993, 64–98Google Scholar
Schmidt, K.H. 1995: ‘Keltische Namen’, in Eichler, E. (ed.), Namenforschung: ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik, Berlin, Vol. I, 762–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrijver, P. 1995: Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology, AmsterdamCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrijver, P. 2002: ‘The rise and fall of British Latin: evidence from English and Brittonic’, in Filppula, M., Klemola, J. and Pitkänen, H. (eds), The Celtic Roots of English, Studies in Languages 37, Joensuu, 87–110Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, P. 2003: The Celtic Inscriptions of Britain: Phonology and Chronology, c. 400–1200, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Smith, C. 1983: ‘Vulgar Latin in Roman Britain: epigraphic and other evidence’, ANRW 29.2, 893–948Google Scholar
Thomason, S.G., and Kaufman, T. 1988: Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics, BerkeleyCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomlin, R.S.O. 1997: ‘Reading a first-century Roman gold signet ring from Fishbourne’, Sussex Archaeological Collections 135, 127–30Google Scholar
Trow, S.D. 1990: ‘By the Northern Shores of Ocean. Some observations on acculturation process at the edge of the Roman world’, in Blagg and Millett 1990, 103–18Google Scholar
Untermann, J. 1967: ‘Die Endung des Genitiv singularis der -o- Stämme im Keltiberischen’, in Meid, W. (ed.), Beiträge zur Indogermanistik und Keltologie: Julius Pokorny zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet, Innsbruck, 281–8Google Scholar
Watts, D. 1998: Religion in Late Roman Britain. Forces of Change, London/New YorkGoogle Scholar
Webster, J. 1995: ‘Interpretatio: Roman word power and the Celtic gods’, Britannia 26, 153–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J. 1997: ‘A negotiated syncretism: readings on the development of Romano-Celtic religion’, in Mattingly 1997, 165–84Google Scholar
Webster, J. 2001: ‘Creolizing the Roman provinces’, AJA 105.2, 209–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolf, G.D. 1992: ‘The unity and diversity of Romanisation’, JRA 5, 349–52Google Scholar
Woolf, G.D. 1998: Becoming Roman. The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, R.R., and Jackson, K.H. 1968: ‘A late inscription from Wroxeter’, Antiq. Journ. 48, 296–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zoll, A.L. 1995: ‘A view through inscriptions: the epigraphic evidence for religion at Hadrian's Wall’, in Metzler et al. 1995, 129–37Google Scholar