Re: re Germanic & Celtic

Daniel Prohaska wrote:
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> From: "R A Brown" ray@CAROLANDRAY.PLUS.COM
>  The word order of modern Breton is, in fact, V2 and I believe is so in the
> revived form of Cornish known IIRC as 'Cornoack' or 'modern Cornish' - the
> other revived forms of Kernewek retain the VSO order of Welsh & the Gaelic
> languages. The modern Breton word order developed from the earlier VSO order
> of insular Brittonic. Is it being suggested that the Germanic word order,
> in main clauses, developed from an earlier VSO order or what?
> [...]
> Ray?
>
> --------------
> Ray,
>  I?m not too strong on the Breton side. I do know quite a bit about both
> Revived and Traditional Cornish and the varieties of Revived Cornish (RC
> henceforth) are V2 to a certain degree. The verbal syntax does not essentially
> differ between the varieties of RC.
>
>  I think you may be mistaking the so-called ?nominal sentence? for a V2 construction.
> The nominal sentence is essentially a relative clause with the subject in
> 1st position followed by a relative particle and (regardless of number and
> person of the subject) the third person singular verb form.
I know, and I am not mistaking it as far as Breton is concerned. My
knowledge of the varieties of RC is a bit shaky, however.
[Cornish examples read with interest, but snipped except for..]

> <Me a wel an den.>
> ?(it is) I that sees the man? = ?I (shall) see the man?
>
> This construction exists in Cornish, Breton and to my knowledge in the (moribund)
> south eastern Welsh dialect of Gwent as well as in Middle Welsh literature.
Fi (a) weliff y dyn = _I_ shall see the man
This exists in modern Welsh (the relative particle _a_ is normally
dropped. But only for emphasis, it is not the normal word order.

But in Breton _me a wel an den_ is the normal form for "I see the man."
Other possible word orders are:
an den a welan = I see _the man_.
Gweled an den a ran. = To-see the man do-I = I _see_ the man.

It's my understanding that *_welan an den_ is not used.

--
Ray
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