Genœ (_Welsh_), Ganau (_Cornish_), Gion (_Irish_), Genu (_Armorican_), mean “The Mouth.”
The original name of “Avranches,” when the country was first subdued by the Romans, was In-“_gena_.” Here it is plain “Gena” was synonymous with Aber! The Town was afterwards called Aber-in-Catui by the Romans, who very generally gave the names of the Celtic tribes to their principal Towns.
In D’Anville’s Map we find, in the same part of Gaul, _Aræ-genu_-s given to Bayeux, (the capital of the Bajocasses,) at the _mouth_ of a river now called the “Ayr!”
The following are very striking examples of the occurrence of the same word, Genœ or Ganau:
“Gano-durum” (Dur water) Constance, at the spot where the Rhine issues out of Lake Constance.
“Geneva.” (The Rhone issues here from the Lake, and is immediately afterwards joined by the Arve.)
“Genua” (Genoa). At the mouth of a stream.
“Albium In-gaun-um,” a town to the east of Genoa, where many streams from the Maritime Alps unite in one mouth.
Beal or Bel (_Irish_), Buel (_Manx_), “A Mouth.” This is another word, applied in Wales and Ireland, in topographical names, in nearly the same sense as Aber, as in Bala, at the mouth of a lake, North Wales, _Bally-shannon_, Ireland. This word does not occur either in vernacular Welsh or in the Welsh of old MSS. But in Irish, _Beal_ or _Bel_ is still the common word for “A Mouth.”
We shall find unequivocal proofs that this word also was used by the old Celts of Gaul, as in “_Boulogne_,” i.e. Bala (Beal, or Buel) Liane, “The mouth of the Liane.” The town is at the mouth of a small stream, of which Bullet, who does not appear to have suspected the derivation, says “La rivière qui passe à Boulogne s’appelle _Liane_.—The stream that runs by Boulogne is called Liane!” “Liane, Lune,” &c. is a common proper name for a stream in all countries of which the Celts formed the first population. Lliant (Llian-au, _plur._) means a stream, a torrent, in Welsh; Llyn, “Water,” in Welsh; and Lean, Irish. Hence “The Lune” in Herefordshire, &c.
A further example of words of this Class occurs in the Latin name of the “Humber.”
This great receptacle of streams was generally called Ab-us; but Ptolomey, in Greek, gives the name more fully, “Abontrus!”(63) This word means in Welsh and Irish “The Outlet”, or literally “The Door” of the Rivers. Trus, A Door, (Drous, _Welsh_, Doros, _Irish_,) occurs in the same sense in Tura (_Sanscrit_), Der (_Persian_). Hence it appears that the Welsh word, which is nearer to the term preserved in this name, has not been borrowed from the English “Door!”