Talk:Jerez

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Latest comment: 3 years ago by Fay Freak in topic Phoenician
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Phoenician

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@Fay Freak I cleaned up all the uses of {{etyl}} for Spanish. This one was not easy; I just said "Phoenician" because I couldn't find the original spelling in Phoenician script and it appears Ceret is of Phoenician origin. I don't believe the derivation from Caesaris and it seems neither do you. Benwing2 (talk) 00:43, 22 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

@Benwing2: I figured so far. Yes, it is strange and reeks of too simple a folk etymology to derive from that word in particular; even more, potentially a hoax of English-language storytellers, if you look where the alleged terms "Asido Caesaris" and "Caesaris urbs" appear.
The notion of a borrowing from Latin followed sane principles though.
Due to when Punic died out, it is largely impossible for the Arabs, spreading by aid of the Justinian plague weaking the Byzantines in the 6th century and Islam in the 7th century, to directly borrow from it, generally the toponyms are much more likely to be from Latin words. It is not without doubt of course when Punic really died out in view of the Dark Ages, there have been more or less reasonable theories about Punic influences on Tunisian Arabic and close dialects, however in Spain Punic surely has died earlier with no odds of meeting Arabs, and not even for Latin or any language to take over Punic toponyms and mediate them to Arabic there has ever been a great chance:
I don’t see that the Phoenicians were that far inland. There is a limited list of Phoenician cities, and about those it is said: “few colonies had more than 1,000 inhabitants; only Carthage and some nearby settlements in the western Mediterranean would grow larger.” Correspondingly the list of Category:Spanish terms derived from Phoenician and Punic must stay short: if you find it otherwise, it is clear that it is as fanciful as the Guanche etyma in Tifinagh script. Fay Freak (talk) 11:49, 22 February 2021 (UTC)Reply