Re: Celtic and Afro-Asiatic?

Aidan Grey wrote:

> That's the one my PIE professor (Dr. Cal Watkins) espoused too, and
> everyone in my dept (Celtic Lang and Lit) seemed to agree with it as well.
Could you explain why. I know there are a set of words common to both
Germanic & insular Celtic. e.g. landa, comba (valley) etc. But these
could be due to independent borrowing from a common non-IE source (in
central Europe, the Alpine region?). And almost certainly there were
loan words exchanged between the two groups.

Are there marked structural similarities between the two groups?

> Aidan
>
> */Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>/* wrote:
>
>     Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier :
>
>     > Yes, and I think it is likely, too. Italic and Celtic are indeed
>     > very similar, and I have seen a cladistic analysis based on various
>     > isoglosses among the IE branches that also grouped the two together.
>
>
>     FWIW, I saw one that grouped Celtic and Germanic, with Italic as
>     the sister of
>     this group. I could look for it tomorrow - it's available on the 'net.
>
The features often quoted in support of the Italo-Celtic theory are IIRC:
In phonology
- assimilation when the first syllable begins with a labial and the
second with a labio-velar; thus PIE *penk_we (five) --> Italo-Celtic
*k_wenk_we
- IE labio-velars become labials in the Brittonic and Osco-Umbrian
languages, but are retained in the Goedelic & Latin languages.

In morphology
- genitive singular in -ī [i-macron] (cf. Old Irish _maqi_ (son's),
Gaulish _Segomari_, Latin _domini_ ); this seems to be peculiar to these
two groups.
- Impersonal form of the verb characterized in both Osco-Umbrian and
Celtic bu -r, e.g. Umbrian _ferar_ 'one must bear', Welsh _gweler_ 'one
sees' (on voit), Irish _berir_ 'one carries'. it seems that in archaic
Latin forms like _amatur_ mean 'one loves' and that the familiar
Classical Latin passives were developed partly through analogy by
extending this -r termination.
- the futures of the _amare_ and _monere_ type verbs are formed with an
element -b- derived from IE *bhu 'to be', i.e. the forms were originally
periphrastic (I am to love). A similar formation is found in Irish, e.g.
_léicfea_ 'I shall leave'.
- in PIE the subjunctive seems to have been formed by the addition or
lengthening of the thematic vowel _e/o_ - this is precisely what we find
in ancient Greek. But the Italic & Celtic we find subjective formation
with -ā- [a-macron - long a].
- both Italic and Celtic developed a peculiar superlative complex -s@mo-
cf. Latin _maximus_, and the Oscan _nessimas_ = O.Irish _nessam_ = Welsh
_nesaf_ "next".

Are there phonological and morphological features shared only by the
Celtic & Germanic groups?

I tend to think, in fact, the the dispersal and spread of IE vernaculars
across central and western Europe were rather more complex (and
interesting) than the simple 'three family group' often presented in
text books.

--
Ray
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