CHAT: Essentialist Explanation

> Gáibhtheacháin
Wouldn't <bhth> come out as [f] ??

Incidentally, as another Keith I've often puzzeled over the origin of
that name. It's supposed
to be quite recent as a personal name, from the Scots place name
(perhaps via a surname, the
Scots seem quite willing to use surnames as first names). The Keith in
place names (Keith,
Dalkeith etc) is supposed to mean "wood" so it looks like a Gaelic
equivalent of W. coed
B. koad < keitos. This would give in Gaelic spelling *ceith or *ciath
(or possibly *cao(i)th
< *kaitos). However I've never found anything like this in the standard
Scots and Irish
dictionaries. Could be Pictish of course which would mean that P.
lenited /t/ > /T/ like
Gaelic not /t/ > /d/ like British. So if you take proto-Welsh and apply
Irish lenition ...

Keith Mylchreest

PS Be warned, Conlangers appear to be persona non grata on certain UCD
hosted lists. See
recent posts to the Yahoo Celticonlang list. 'Si Marion Gunn bean gun
na:ire, ceart gu leo:ir!