Re: Celtic and Afro-Asiatic?

Aidan Grey wrote:
[snip]
>
> Personally, I think language change is not so clean-cut. Families are
> the best approximations / generalizations of linguistic "genetics" we
> can provide. Even modern dialectology is not so clear cut - I know of
> some studies that show a continuum of change from one area to another,
> with no clear boundaries. What can you do with such fuzzy lizes,
> milennia after the fact and faced with only spotty written records?
Yes, indeed - I am very much of similar opinion.
===================================================

Leo Caesius wrote:
 > R A Brown wrote:
>>
>>> "12) Prepositional periphrastic: BE + Prep + VN, e.g.,
>>>       "He is at singing"  [TEONAHT'S  "she is with singing"]
>>
>> In any case, is this a _Semitic_ trait? I am not aware of this."
>>
 > One could argue that the "infinitive construct" in Biblical Hebrew
belongs
 > to this category, particularly in connection with b- or k- to express
time-
 > determinations (which need to be translated into temporal clauses in
 > English).  This, however, is unique to Hebrew; as Steg mentioned, Hebrew
 > innovated its infinitives.

So, not typically Semitic.

In fact the insular Celtic use of "to be" with some form like 'at
singing' or 'in singing' seems to me far more certain to be connected
with the use in Vulgar Latin of "stare" (to stand) and _ablative_ of the
  gerund. This construction still survives in modern Italian and in
Iberian Romance, cf.
It. stavano dormendo = Cat. estaven dorment = Sp. estaban durmiendo =
Port. estavam dormindo  = VL. (i)staban(t) dormiendo (they were a-sleeping)

The rest of
 >
 > "Are periphrastic verbal construction common in Semitic languages?"
 >
 > Actually, there are some constructions in Akkadian and Mandaic which
might
[etc. snipped]

Yes - once again the feature that is advanced as evidence of
Afro-Asiatic influence on Celtic is hardly typical of Afro-Asiatic.

[snip]
 > centuries, but occupied only seasonally IIRC.  It's not unlikely that
the
 > Phoenicians were in Madeira and perhaps even the Canaries, but
 > archaeological evidence has not yet been found.
 >
 > All of the evidence for Phoenician ventures to the British Isles is
 > textual, not archaeological.

I think it is not improbable that Phoenicians did sail round to the
Cornish peninsular for tin, but as Leo says the evidence is textual.
However, even if they did, such a trade contact is hardly likely to have
had a profound effect upon the vernacular of the rest of Britain and
upon Ireland.

--
Ray
==================================
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http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
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--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
MAKE POVERTY HISTORY

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