A Celtic Religious Center in the Alps

Fig. 1: Overview map of the Hallstatt (yellow) and La Tne (green) cultures the Hallstatt culture.
after Atlas of the Celtic World, by John Haywood; London Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2001, pp.30-37. 1

Celtic civilization originated ca. 1300 BCE from the Austrian Hallstatt area and culminated around 500 BCE in the La Tne culture covering an area between the sources of the Danube and Seine rivers. Around 400 BCE they crossed the Alps and expanded their territory to Northern Italy. Around 200 BCE the Celtic peoples had settled major territories in modern France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Southern Germany, Northern Italy, the Czech republic, Slovakia and Hungary. As a remarkable fact all of these areas are located in or around the Alps. Several remarkable data may indicate references between the Alps and Celtic religion. Most of the Alpine Ego-pronouns seem to have been structured according to a peculiar vowel I*U-pattern, in which the asterisk may be replaced by one of the vowels A, E or O. These Egopronouns (ieu, iou, iau2) do not belong to the oldest Indoeuropean Ego-pronouns, which seem to be man- or me-derivates. Instead they may have concentrated in the Alpine regions at the Celtic eras for special reasons. Of course they may have been preserved in the remote Alpine areas. However there are other remote areas in the Pyrenees or on the British islands such as Man, in which other Ego-pronouns have been preserved, which in contrast to the vowel I*U-pronouns must be considered as elder man- or me-generations of Ego-pronouns. These considerations did lead to the thesis that a Celtic religious center may have existed in the Alps, in which the vowel-pronouns (ieu, iou, iau) had been concentrated for religious purposes. The vowels may have been religious symbols in an alphabet in which the consonants have been considered as con- respectively co-sounding symbols to the more important vowels.

1 Published by Dbachmann for the Wikimedia Commons under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 2 The Hieroglyphs in the Ego-Pronoun

In order to prove the thesis we must consider the special conditions, which may have existed in the Alps and in Celtic philosophy: The Alps have been a dominating mountainous area in the center of the Celtic population. First of all both main rivers the male Rhine and the female Rhone etymologically seem to be androgynous twins and they spring from closely located sources near the Gotthard area, in which the Gotthard may be translated to God's forest. The Celts are known to have honored the antipodes similar to the taijitu (Yin-Yang-symbol), which is known for its androgynous symbolism. Patterns similar to the taijitu also form part of Celtic, Etruscan and Roman iconography, where they are loosely referred to as yin yang symbol by modern scholars; no relationship between these and the Chinese symbol has been established. In Celtic art, the motif of two interlocking commas that appear to swirl is a recurrent one which can be traced back to the late 5th century BC 3. With a view to the much later Chinese symbol, art historians of the La Tne culture refer anachronistically to these clinging pairs as "yin yang". Parallel to the bipolar symbols such as the taijitu the Celts also preferred triads. The I*Upronouns such as ieu, iou and iau are triads. The Wikipedia entry Taijitu also describes a Celtic yin yang whorl in a triskele or triad arrangement4.

Now let us list a few pronouns and divine names for the former Celtic Alpine territories in France, Switzerland. Data will be taken from the Swadesh -Lists 5: Language French Lengadocian Occitan Mnstertalisch (Jauer) Patois of Villar-St-Pancrace (Alpes) Occitan Surselvisch (Sursilvan) Sutselvisch (Sutsilvan) Lower Engadin Lower Engadinian (Zernez ) Lower engadinian (Vallader) Upper Engadine (Puter) Southern Germany God Dieu Dieu , Diu, Deu Deis Diu Dieu Deus Jupiter bzw. *IOU-piter Deis Deus oder Dios (?) Deus Dieu Tuisco, Dis7 (?) Ego-Pronoun Je , moi Ieu , iu Jau iu m, m iu 6 ieu, jo jeu jou Eu, jau (jo) jo eu eau Ih, I

Table 1: Pronouns and divine names for the former Celtic Alpine territories

3 Wikipedia: Taijitu which also includes some samples 4 detail of the center of a bronze disc; find spot: Longban Island, Derry; pre-Christian period; on display at Ulster Museum in Belfast 5 The Hieroglyphs in the Ego-Pronoun 6 Patois of Villar-St-Pancrace : Personal pronouns: Cas sujet Cas rgime atone tonique direct indirect Sg. 1p a (l) iu m, m iu 2p t, t t, t t 3p M u(l), al ei(l) s lu ei F eilo la eilo N o, ul, la - lu - Pl. 1p n* n* 2p * v* v* 3p M (z) s l* i F eil (eilaz) l* eil 7 Tuisco as documented by Tacitus in Germania, respectively Dis by Julius Caesar

In contrast some old Celtic languages in remote, non-Alpine areas may prefer me-pronouns, although most refer to the standard Indoeuropean sky-god Diu, for example: Language Manx Old Irish Picard, Belgium Scottish Gaelic Venetian Welsh Walloon , Belgium Friulan Diu Dia , God Dio Duw Diu Diu, Idiu God Jee Ego-Pronoun mee m mi, fi mi mi mi, fi dji; mi 8 jo

Table 2: Pronouns and divine names in Celtic languages in remote, non-Alpine areas Other languages Croatian and Czech may still refer to jau in their ego-pronouns ja and j. Language Croatian Czech God Bog Bh Ego-Pronoun ja j

Table 3: Pronouns and divine names in Croatian / Czech languages in remote, non-Alpine areas From these table we may discern: the ja - and jau-sounds belonging to the east-Alpine regions, whereas the je and jeu-sounds belonging to the west-Alpine regions, and the io - and jou-sounds belonging to the southern areas in which Jupiter bzw. *IOU-piter has been originated. These jau-, jeu and jou-layers may have originated around 400 BCE at the time of the Celtic settlement of the Alps. Some of the central languages still carry traces of the ancient predecessor me-pronouns such as in iu m, m iu in the Patois of Villar-St-Pancrace, moi (parallel to je in modern French) and in a similar way comparable to French dji; mi in Walloon , Belgium.

Modern Pronouns
The modern French pronoun je may be an abbreviation of the Provencal ieu by skipping the trailing female symbol u. The modern Italian io and Spanish yo pronoun may be abbreviations of the Sutsilvan iou by skipping the trailing female symbol u. The modern Croatian and Czech pronoun ja may be abbreviations of the Jauer-pronoun jau by skipping the trailing female symbol u. The modern English pronoun I may be an abbreviation of the Southern Ih.

8 For pronouns, the first one given is for the one doing the action (eg: dji magne = I eat), the second, for the one target of the action (eg: avou mi = with me).

Map of the Celtic Pronoun's Distribution (details)

Fig. 2: Map of the Celtic Pronoun's Distribution

Background map after Atlas of the Celtic World, by John Haywood; London Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2001, pp.30-37. 9

9 Published by Dbachmann for the Wikimedia Commons under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Flow-map for Ego-Pronouns (including YHVH)

Fig. 3: Map of countries in Europe and the surrounding region Map of countries in Europe and the surrounding region derivative work of Europe countries map.png by San Jose, published by San Jose (map) under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version

Conclusion
The existence of two parallel series of Ego-pronouns the iu, ieu and iau-series in parallel to the me- and moi-series suggests that the vowel-pronouns I*U may have originated as Celtic etymological and religious traces in the Alpine region, where they may have survived in remote Alpine areas in their most original state. In other non-Alpine areas the predecessor layers of mi-, mee-, me- and moi-pronouns may have survived either as ancient pre-Celtic or early Celtic pronouns. The IU-bipolarity may refer to the androgynous universal or purely Celtic deities or the corresponding androgynous creation legends. The center of religious symbolism may have been the Gotthard-area God's forest, which is a high Alpine area at the center of the Alps where both the Rhine and the Rhone are originating as symbolic twins. The modern French pronoun je may be an abbreviation of the Provencal ieu by skipping the trailing female symbol u, as well as (in analogy) io, yo, ja and I are abbreviations of iou, respectively iau. Similar mechanisms 10 may be derived for the corresponding divine names, Diu, Dieu, Diou, Juppiter, and so on...

10 The Hermetic Codex