Celt - No such thing !!!

[authun]

I doubt very much that a link can be found as " hill dwellers" could easily crop up in different areas ( no register of tribal names to debar it)

There are a great number of 'brig' or 'briga' names throughout the celtic speaking world: Deobriga, Arvobriga, Colubriga etc. including Brigh in Tyrone from Brioch and meaning 'Hilly Place' according to Mills. For a complete list of securely identified names, see Volume 12 of the Celtic Studies Publications, An Atlas for Celtic Studies - Archaeology and Names in Ancient Europe and Early Medieval Ireland, Britain and Brittany.

Brig(a) placenames are often combined with another placename, Talabriga; an adjective, Mirobriga or a personal name, Flaviobriga. Sometimes the initial element is clearly celtic too, such as in Segobriga. In other cases you may get a roman anthropronym, such as in Augustobriga.

PIE *bher(g)h has a number of derivatives in centum languages. The first meaning is from the PIE meaning, hill, which is still retained. A fortified place is a secondary meaning, eg. germanic burg. A tertiary meaning for an urban place or population is derived in turn through germanic and exists in several languages as bourgeois, burgués, etc.

Remember that the term Brigantes is an etic term for a number of groups. We don't know the emic names for all of them. As such, hill dwellers is a better fit than dwellers of the hill forts, as this would not distinguish them from other hill forts and any etymology based on an urban nature is too early for, as explained above, this is a later germanic mediation.

best
Harry Amphlett