Re: USAGE: Yet another few questions about Welsh.

Ray Brown wrote:

> On Saturday, July 3, 2004, at 12:16 , Joe wrote:
>
>> So, I went to Wales, as one does.  Bought some books while I was over
>> there(A New Testament and a Language Course, actually).  It's nice to
>> see that a Celtic language still thrives to such a degree.
>
>
> Yep.
>
>> But some things I'm curious about.  Historical ones, mostly.  Firstly,
>> where does the definite article '(y)(r)' come from?  All other Celtic
>> languages, Brythonic and Goidelic, seem to use 'an'.
>
>
> All from the same source - IIRC demostratives *sindo- ~ *sinda-
>
> The initial s- becomes h- and, being always unstressed, is lost. The
> vowel
> is weakened to [@] or [a], giving us [@n] or [an]. As for the Welsh
> forms,
>  Breton gives a clue to what's happened. In Breton the definite
> article is:
> an - used before words beginning d-, h-, n-, t- or a vowel;
> al - used only before words beginning with l- ;
> ar - used before all other consonants.
>
> In other words, the final consonant of this unstressed proclitic has been
> modified to make pronunciation easier in different environments.
> Something
> similar happened in proto-Welsh, and Welsh came to use _yr_ /@r/ to the
> exclusion of other earlier forms. Of course, modern welsh has carried the
> weakening process even further, so that in most environments it's now
> just
> _y_ /@/.

That's interesting.

I have yet more questions.  I really, really, like Welsh.  It's quite
possibly the most beautiful language I've come across.

Firstly - when did the [G]>0 sound change happen?  Since the Welsh
started writing things down, or before?  I probably shouldn't be
treating you as a font of all knowledge, but you're doing pretty well so
far ;-)  It seems to have also occured in Cornish, but not, I am led to
believe, Breton.

Also, how did all the Celtic mutations move around?  You have two in the
Goidelic languages, four in Breton and Cornish, and three in Welsh, one
of which is unique.  In Irish, Eclipsis seems to be a combination of the
soft and nasal mutations, Lenition the soft and aspirate ones.  Breton
and Cornish don't have any kind of nasal mutation, but add a hard
mutation, and a 'mixed' one.  It all seems rather, well, confusing.

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