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La rivière Tay

Tava / Tavus

page ouverte le 10.02.2006        forum de discussion

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica 

dernière mise à jour 02/07/2008 13:41:28

Définition : rivière de Grande Bretagne, en Écosse.

Elle prend sa source à ***, traverse le Loch Tay, et débouche dans la Mer du Nord à ***

Elle arrose :Inchtutil / Pinnata Castra, Carpow / Horrea Classis.

Elle a donné son nom au district de Tayside.

* M.N Bouillet (1863) : "Tavus, rivière d'Écosse (Perthshire), sort des monts Grampians, coule vers l'est, au sud, à l'est, arrose Dunkeld et Perth, traverse le Loch-Tay (un des plus jolis lacs du royaume), forme, en approchant de la mer, un estuaire, dit Firth of Tay (ou golfe du Tay), et tombe dans la mer du Nord; cours total, 150 km".

Étymologie

* Rivet & Smith (1979-1982) : 

* Tacitus, Agricola 22,I : vastatis usque ad TAUM (aestuario nomen est) nationibus (var.: ad TANAUM) ,

* Ptolemy II,3,4 : Taoua Eistuais ( = TAVA AESTUARIUM)

* Ravenna 10819 (= R&C 232): TABA 

There can be little doubt that Ravenna's included in the section of diversa loca, is a river-name (Panovius for Fl Novius at I0818 is another). Presumably : map-source, Taba - with Vulgar Latin b for v, as often - was written along and course of the river and misread as a habitation-name; and was accepted as such ('a locus or tribal meeting-place') by R&C. The name is then omitted from Ravenna's list of rivers.

DERIVATION : Authorities both on toponymy and on Tacitus agree in dismissing the Tanaum variant and in thinking that Taum is written for Tavum (and it is easy to see how Tanaum arose via *Tauum in copying, since n/u are readily confused in some medieval scripts). The name seems to have both masculine and feminine forms; Tavus2 shows a masculine in the single record. The root is British *tavo - *tava. This bas traditionally been taken (sinceas least Holder II: 1774) to mean 'silent, peaceful', in line with the senses taw `silent, silence', Irish. toi, etc. But Ekwall objected that the Tay and  Taw (then associated etymologically with this) are not calm or peaceful rivers (ERN 394); and Watson CPNS 5o-51, vhile accepting the etymplogy, added that the Gaelic name of the Tay, Tatha from older Toe, could not have arisen from Tava but presupposes a form *Tavuia. Pokorny in ZCP, XXI (1940), 83, followed by W. Nicolaisen in BZN, VIII (I9S7), 260-61, altagether dismiss a root meaning `silent' and derive the name - one of a very large famïly - from the Indo-European root *ta- *ta-  flieBen', with the third type of consonantal development in Nicolaisen's classification (see TAMARUS) in .-u-; this Celtic Taua or Tauia > Tay, Taw, meaning simply `flowing one, river'. Continental parallels include *Taya > T'hève, a tributary ofthe Oise (France); Tavia IM 5032, TP, a river of Liguria > Taggia (N. Italy); Tabia, a settlement in Dalmatia (Ravenna 5523); and Tavium, an oppidum of Galatia (Pliny NH  V, 146) = Tavia (A1 2018 etc.), now Nefez Köi in Turkey, ,which shows the same gender variation as the present British name. These forms were thus extraordinarily widespread.

IDENTIFICATION. The river Tay, Scotland.

ii

Extrait d'Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain

Couleurs ajoutées par JC Even : le gros point vert  équerré de rouge représente la source principale de la Tay; les petits points vers ceux des affluents de la Tay; le gros point rouge permet de localiser l'embouchure. 

Bibliographie :

* M.N Bouillet : Dictionnaire Universel d'histoire et de géographie. Hachette. 1863.

* Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain. 1956

* A.L.F Rivet & Colin Smith : The Place-Names of Roman Britain. B.T Batsford Ltd. London. 1979. Édition 1982.

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica

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