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E.g. *druwits ‘druid Druid A druid was a member of the priestly and learned class in the ancient Celts societies of Western Europe, Great Britain and Ireland. They were suppressed by the Ancient Rome and disappeared from the written record by the second century CE.... ’ (masculine Grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once.... )
E.g. *karnuxs ‘carnyx Carnyx The Carnyx was a wind instrument of the Iron Age Celts, attested for ca. 300 BC to 200 AD. It is a kind of bronze trumpet, held vertically, the mouth styled in the shape of a boar's head.... ’ (masculine? Grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once.... )
E.g. *dants ‘tooth Tooth Teeth are small whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense.... ’ (masculine Grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once.... )
Nasal
Generally, nasal stems end in *-on-, this becomes *-u in the nominative singular: *abon-- "river" > *abu. |
| number Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | nominative | vocative | accusative Accusative case The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions.... | genitive | dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary".... | ablative | instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.... | locative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *abu | *abu | *abonem | *abonos | *abonei | *aboni | *abone | *aboni |
| dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *abone | *abone | *abone | *abonou | *abonobom | *abonobim | *abonobim | *abonobim |
| plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *abones | *abones | *abonas | *abonom | *abonobo | *abonobi | *abonobi | *abonobi |
E.g. *kangsmã ‘step
Step
The term Step or Steps may refer to:* Walk* Dance step, the building block of many dances* Step dance, a dance style where the footwork is the most important part of the dance...
’ (masculine
Grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
)
| number Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | nominative | vocative | accusative Accusative case The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions.... | genitive | dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary".... | ablative | instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.... | locative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *kangsmã | *kangsmã | *kangsmanem | *kangsmanos | *kangsmanei | *kangsmani | *kangsmane | *kangsmani |
| dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *kangsmane | *kangsmane | *kangsmane | *kangsmanou | *kangsmanobom | *kangsmanobim | *kangsmanobim | *kangsmanobim |
| plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *kangsmanes | *kangsmanes | *kangsmanas | *kangsmanom | *kangsmanobo | *kangsmanobi | *kangsmanobi | *kangsmanobi |
- s-stem nouns
Generally, *s-stems end in *-es-, which becomes *-os in the nominative singular: *teges- ‘house’ > *tegos.
E.g. *tegos ‘houseHouse
A house generally refers to a or building that is a dwelling or place for habitation by humans. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings....
’ (masculineGrammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
)
| number Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | nominative | vocative | accusative Accusative case The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions.... | genitive | dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary".... | ablative | instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.... | locative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *tegos | *tegos | *tegesem | *tegesos | *tegesei | *tegesi | *tegese | *tegesi |
| dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *tegese | *tegese | *tegese | *tegesou | *tegesobom | *tegesobim | *tegesobim | *tegesobim |
| plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *tegeses | *tegeses | *tegesas | *tegesom | *tegesobo | *tegesobi | *tegesobi | *tegesobi |
- r-stem nouns
- r-stems are rare and principally confined to names of relatives. Typically they end in *-ter-, which becomes *-tir in the nominative and *-tr- in all other cases aside from the accusative: *fater- ‘father’ > *fatir, *fatros.
E.g. *fatir ‘father
Father
The father is defined as the male parent of an offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.According to the anthropologist Maurice Godelier, the parental role assumed by human males is a critical difference between human society and that of humans' closest biological relatives - chimpanzees and b...
’ (masculine
Grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
)
| number Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | nominative | vocative | accusative Accusative case The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions.... | genitive | dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary".... | ablative | instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.... | locative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *''fatir'' | *''fatir'' | *''fater'' | *''fatros'' | *''fatrei'' | *''fatri'' | *''fatre'' | *''fatri'' |
| dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *''fatre'' | *''fatre'' | *''fatre'' | *''fatrou'' | *''fatrobom'' | *''fatrobim'' | *''fatrobim'' | *''fatrobim'' |
| plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *''fatres'' | *''fatres'' | *''fatras'' | *''fatrom'' | *''fatrobo'' | *''fatrobi'' | *''fatrobi'' | *''fatrobi'' |
E.g. *''matir'' ‘mother
Mother
A mother is a biological and/or Maternal bond female parent of an offspring. Because of the complexity and differences of the social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to define a mother in a universally accepted definition....
’ (feminine
Grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
)
| number Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | nominative | vocative | accusative Accusative case The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions.... | genitive | dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary".... | ablative | instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.... | locative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *''matir'' | *''matir'' | *''mater'' | *''matros'' | *''matrei'' | *''matri'' | *''matre'' | *''matri'' |
| dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *''matre'' | *''matre'' | *''matre'' | *''matrou'' | *''matrobom'' | *''matrobim'' | *''matrobim'' | *''matrobim'' |
| plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | *''matres'' | *''matres'' | *''matras'' | *''matrom'' | *''matrobo'' | *''matrobi'' | *''matrobi'' | *''matrobi'' |
Verbs
The Insular Celtic verbVerb
In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
shows a peculiar feature unknown in any other attested Indo-European language: verbs have different conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb, noun or adjective from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical tense, Grammatical aspect, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, or other grammatical category....
al forms depending on whether they appear in absolute initial position in the sentence (Insular Celtic having Verb Subject Object
Verb Subject Object
Verb Subject Object is a term in linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these constituents in neutral expressions: Ate Sam oranges....
or VSO word order) or whether they are preceded by a preverbal particle
Grammatical particle
A particle, in grammar, is a function word that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes . The term is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of elements and lacks a precise universal definition....
. The situation is most robustly attested in Old Irish
Old Irish language
Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language, or, rather, the Goidelic languages, for which extensive written texts are possessed....
, but it has remained to some extent in Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic languages branch of Celtic languages. This branch also includes the Irish language and Manx language languages....
and traces of it are present in Middle Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
as well.
Forms that appear in sentence-initial position are called absolute, those that appear after a particle are called conjunct (see Dependent and independent verb forms
Dependent and independent verb forms
In the Goidelic languages, dependent and independent verb forms are distinct verb forms used either with a preceding grammatical particle or, usually, without one ....
for details). The paradigm
Paradigm
The word paradigm has been used in linguistics and science to describe distinct concepts.To the 1960s, the word was specific to grammar: the 1900 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines its technical use only in the context of grammar or, in rhetoric, as a term for an illustrative parable or fable....
of the present
Present tense
The present tense is the Grammatical tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* a habitual action;* an occurrence in the near future; or...
active indicative of the Old Irish verb ''beirid'' "carry" is as follows; the conjunct forms are illustrated with the particle ''ní'' "not".
| Absolute | Conjunct | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | biru "I carry" | ní biur "I do not carry" |
| 2nd person singular | biri "you carry" | ní bir "you do not carry" |
| 3rd person singular | beirid "s/he carries" | ní beir "she/he does not carry" |
| 1st person plural | bermai "we carry" | ní beram "we do not carry" |
| 2nd person plural | beirthe "you carry" | ní beirid "you do not carry" |
| 3rd person plural | berait "they carry" | ní berat "they do not carry" |
In Scottish Gaelic this distinction is still found in certain verb-forms:
| Absolute | Conjunct |
|---|---|
| cuiridh "puts/will put" | cha chuir "doesn't put/will not put" |
| òlaidh "drinks/will drink" | chan òl "doesn't drink/will not drink" |
| ceannaichidh "buys/will buy" | cha cheannaich "doesn't buy/will not buy" |
In Middle Welsh, the distinction is seen most clearly in proverbs following the formula "X happens, Y does not happen" (Evans 1964: 119):
- Pereid y rycheu, ny phara a'e goreu "The furrows last, he who made them lasts not"
- Trenghit golut, ny threingk molut "Wealth perishes, fame perishes not"
- Tyuit maban, ny thyf y gadachan "An infant grows, his swaddling-clothes grow not"
- Chwaryit mab noeth, ny chware mab newynawc "A naked boy plays, a hungry boy plays not"
The older analysis of the distinction, as reported by Thurneysen (1946, 360 ff.), held that the absolute endings derive from Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
"primary endings" (used in present and future tenses) while the conjunct endings derive from the "secondary endings" (used in past tenses). Thus Old Irish absolute ''beirid'' "s/he carries" was thought to be from * (compare Sanskrit ''bharati'' "s/he carries"), while conjunct ''beir'' was thought to be from * (compare Sanskrit ''a-bharat'' "s/he was carrying").
Today, however, most Celticists agree that Cowgill (1975), following an idea present already in Pedersen (1913, 340 ff.), found the correct solution to the origin of the absolute/conjunct distinction: an enclitic particle, reconstructed as * after consonants and * after vowels, came in second position in the sentence. If the first word in the sentence was another particle, * came after that and thus before the verb, but if the verb was the first word in the sentence, * was cliticized to it. Under this theory, then, Old Irish absolute ''beirid'' comes from Proto-Celtic *, while conjunct ''ní beir'' comes from *.
The identity of the * particle remains uncertain. Cowgill suggests it might be a semantically degraded form of * "is", while Schrijver (1994) has argued it is derived from the particle * "and then", which is attested in Gaulish.
Continental Celtic languages
Continental Celtic languages
The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct, that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe ....
cannot be shown to have any absolute/conjunct distinction. However, they seem to show only SVO and SOV
Subject Object Verb
In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb is the type of languages in which the subject , object , and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order....
word orders, as in other Indo-European languages. The absolute/conjunct distinction may thus be an artifact of the VSO word order that arose in Insular Celtic.
Dating
The date when Proto-Celtic became a separate language is controversial. In the past an association with particular archaeological cultures had been assumed, then the method of glottochronologyGlottochronology
Glottochronology is an approach in historical linguistics for estimating the time at which languages diverged, based on the assumption that the basic vocabulary of a language changes at a constant average rate....
was used. Both are not satisfactory for many reasons. In the last decade or so a number of groups have addressed this question using modern computational methods, with differing results. Gray and Atkinson estimated a date of 6100 BP (4100 BCE) while Forster and Toth suggest a date of 8100 BP (6100 BCE), but such early dates are not generally accepted. Both these dates are subject to considerable estimating uncertainty, perhaps +/-1500 years. In the Paleolithic Continuity Theory
Paleolithic Continuity Theory
The Paleolithic Continuity Theory is a hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European language can be traced back to the Paleolithic era,...
Celtic is proposed to have emerged from the Iberian refuge after the Last Glacial Maximum, but this theory is not generally accepted.
Proto-Celtic may have been spoken to as late as 800 BCE, see Celtic languages
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European languages language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul....
.
See also
- Italo-CelticItalo-Celtic
In historical linguistics, Italo-Celtic refers to the observation that the Italic languages and the Celtic languages share a number of common features unique to these two groups.... - Pre-CelticPre-Celtic
The term pre-Celtic refers to the period in the prehistory of Central and Western Europe postdating the emergence of Proto-Celtic and predating the expansion of the Celts in the course of the earlier Iron Age Europe .... - Urnfield
- Halstatt culture
- La Tène cultureLa Tène culture
The La T?ne culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La T?ne, Marin-Epagnier on the north side of Lake Neuch?tel in Switzerland, where a rich trove of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....
External links
A reference for Proto-Celtic vocabularyVocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and learning....
is provided by the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales is a confederal university founded in 1893. It has accredited institutions throughout Wales, ranging from nineteenth-century establishments like University of Wales, Aberystwyth and University of Wales, Bangor to post-1992 universities like University of Wales, Newport and institutes of higher education such as Unive...
at the following sites:
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Oldest Universities by Region university in the Netherlands....
provides a Proto-Celtic dictionary: