Adsullata
|
|
In Celtic mythology, Adsullata was a river goddess, associated with the River Savus in the Balkans.
Etymology of the name
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf ) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Ad-sug-latā. This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘Absorbing Mud.’ This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to propose that the original nature of this deity may well have been a personification of “water-absorbing mud ”. This theory would account for the deity’s associations with the River Sava.
Diachronic changes in the form of the name
Following the known laws of Celtic diachronic linguistics as elucidated by Marian B. Hughes at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, the Proto-Celtic name *Ad-sug-latā would have been inherited into Brythonic in the form of *Assullata or *Assuglata.
.