Re: Supposed Celtic semiticisms

On Friday, January 28, 2005, at 07:21 , Rodlox wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ray Brown" <ray.brown@...>
> To: <CONLANG@...>
> Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:58 PM
> Subject: Re: Supposed Celtic semiticisms
>
>> The question nevertheless remains as to why these developments took place
>> in Ireland & Britain.
>
>  coincidence?
Yes - but that still does not explain _why_ 'Insular Celtic' developed the
way it did. There are, of course, also other features shared by the
Insular Celtic langs that AFAIK have no analog in the Semitic langs - for
example the very great use of periphrastic verb constructs.
===============================================

> On Saturday, January 29, 2005, at 01:27 , damien perrotin wrote:
>
> Skrivet gant Rodlox:
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Ray Brown" <ray.brown@...>
[snip]
>>> The question nevertheless remains as to why these developments took
>>> place
>>> in Ireland & Britain.
>>
>> coincidence?
>
> not necessarily. The loss of neuter is a consequence of the loss of
> desinences under the influence of a strong accent which was probably
> common to both branches of Celtic
Ah! Rodlox's laconic reply is rather ambiguous. I understood him to be
asking if it was just a coincidence that the developments in Ireland &
Britain had parallels in the Semitic langs. But, especially with just the
bit of my mail he quoted, he could be asking if was a coincidence that the
Gaelic languages developed in a similar way to the Brittonic ones.

>  (note that Latin also experienced it).
It did - and IMO there are more similarities with the developments in
Romance than with the Semitic languages.

> Besides, there might have been a kind of limited sprachbund between
> Western Brythonnic and Gaelic which would explain the mutations and the
> shift to VSO.
A sprachbund might explain the shift to SVO, similae development of def.
article and the development of wide use of periphrastic verbs (English to
quite a degree shares the latter develoment). The mutation system of the
Gaelic langs is IMO different from that of the Brittonic langs (the latter
are far closer to sound changes going on in western Romance).

Ray
===============================================
http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown
ray.brown@freeuk.com
===============================================
Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

Replies