Re: Celtic and Afro-Asiatic?

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:

>Hallo!
>
>Steg Belsky wrote:
>
>
[snip]

>>[17 "Celtic-Semitic" features, and comments on them]
>>
>>
>
>You say that some of these are to your knowledge not found
>in Semitic languages; I must say that I haven't seen some of them
>in Celtic.  Perhaps that's all just snake oil.
>
Yes, this topic had turned up from time to time on Conlang in the past.
Indeed, I noticed superficial structural resemblances between Welsh &
Hebrew long years before I even knew about Conlang. But the
resemblances, tho interesting, are IME more superficial than real.

Certainly IMO many of the 17 points quoted in Jörg's mail on 14th Sep.
are somewhat strained.

>Perhaps it is
>little more than VSO word order with its typological ramifications.
>Calling anyone knowledgable about VSO languages other than Celtic
>and Afro-Asiatic: do these languages show the same features?
>
>
I believe so.

>A problem with the assumption of an Afro-Asiatic substratum
>in Insular Celtic is that there is no trace of Afro-Asiatic
>anywhere in between (Iberian peninsula, France).
>
Yes, indeed - and there are, I believe, other difficulties. More to the
point is whether these features existed in the earlier forms of
'Celtic'. I know too little about Old Irish. Were these features,
supposedly inherited from a Afro-Asiatic substratum, present in Old
Irish. My impression is that Gaulish & the Old British languages were
far more akin to Latin than to anything Semitic. Indeed, some scholars
have posited a Celto-Italic IE sub-family.

--
Ray
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