TheManapii (Ancient Greek:Μανάπιοι) are an ancient tribe from southeasternIreland mentioned by Greek geographerPtolemy in the 2nd century AD.
They were later attested as(Fir) Manach (var.Manaig,Monaig) in the Early Christian period, a tribe dwelling further north inCounty Down and nearLough Erne which gave its name to the modernCounty Fermanagh.[1][2] Early Irish genealogists mentioned that the Manaig had emigrated from the south ofLeinster.[1]
TheethnonymManapii has beenphonetically compared with theGaulishMenapii, a tribe from northern Gaul first recorded in the 1st century BC.[1][2] Those names may ultimately derive from aProto-Celtic form reconstructed as *Menakwī or *Manakwī.[3] The etymology is uncertain. It could mean the 'mountain people' or the 'high-living people', from the root *mon- ('mountain', cf.MWelshmynydd,OBret.monid), or else derive from the root *men- ('think, remember'; cf.OIr.muinithir 'think', Welshmynnu 'wish').[4][3]
According to scholar Patrick Sims-Williams, the nameManapii may have been imported by settlers from Britain, for it shows aP-Celtic form that possibly came to be assimilated in the local Irish dialect as *Manakwī >Manaig.[2]
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