Re: Breton (WAS: first try at conlanging)

 Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...> writes:

> On Mon, 7 Jan 2002 21:28:31 EST
> Elliott Lash <AL260@...> wrote:
>
> > In a message dated Mon, 7 Jan 2002 2:20:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, Dan Jones
> > <dan@...> writes:
> >
> > > Elliott Lash escreva:
> > > >There are Bretons on the list?! Wow, Mat an traou ganeoc'h? Karout a ran
> > > >an Brezhoneg.
> > >
> > > <nods and smiles, feigning comprehension> Er, si.
> >
> > Surely you meant: Er, ya.
> > Actually, I just had an epiphany last night. In Breton the word for yes is Ya. Now,
> > this might be taken immediately as a Germanic Loan word (c.f. German Ja,
> > English Yeah, so forth). But then again, maybe it's a Celtic Cognate of this
> > word. I say this because it also appears in Welsh: ie "yes" (only used in
> > some circumstances). Or maybe we're just dealing with one loan word, borrowed
> > from the Anglo-Saxons, and then brought to France by the
> > Bretons...hmm..wonders.
>
>
>
> <unlurk>
>
> a probably wrong guess at a cognate -
> In Irish (and maybe in scottish gaelic) in answering a question one can
> sometimes say 'sea' "it is" , pronounced /Sa/, but the S is probably
> slightly palatalised.
>
> Then again it's likely a contraction of 'is ea' in speech (I don't really
> know how to pronounce 'is ea' convincingly except to make it like 'sea'.
> In this Ir. 'ea' is Eng. 'it' and Ir. 'is' is the copula ( ~ Eng. 'is').
>
Yes, well known to me. Pronounced /ISe/ at least in my book.

> If I have a point it might be that since in Irish the word for yes (typically
> you'd just repeat the verb with or without negation, to answer a question)
> probably comes from the copula, might it be the same in Breton?
> I know that Irish & Breton aren't really so closely related, despite being
> both Celtic, but I'd still be suprised if the Brythonic/p-branch side of
> the family didn't have a copula. Anyway how would you say 'it is' in Breton?
> Anything like 'ya' or 'sea'
eo /e/ or /ew/.

But I wasn't saying anything to this affect. I was saying that Welsh and Breton
words for yes (only in some contexts, and mostly not for affirmative presents),
are very similar: /iE/ and /ja/ (Welsh and Breton respectively). I wouldn't be
surprised that these are congate. Though I doubt they're cognate to the copula,
since they are not used where copular repitition conveys affirmation. And also,
the Welsh copula is /iw/, from /@diw/.

Now that I'm back in my University, I think I'll go to the library and check this out.



> Probably words for 'yes' etc are the wrong place to > look for cognates,
> though.Probably should be looking in >basic vocab.

But..surely 'yes' is a basic vocabulary member?

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