Celtic Linguistics

On compound epithets in early Irish poetry

by Dmitry Nikolaev

A manuscript with uncertain perspectives.

Work notes on Etruscan Devotional Plates III

by Mel Copeland

This is a PDF file of our website, 'Translation of Etruscan Devotional Plates III," with images compiled from the Etruscan Phrases website (http://www.maravot.com/Translation_ShortScripts_e.html)

In contrast to offerings from the British Museum and University of Bologna, where their analyses, following Pallottino, are generally speculation based on guesswork relating to short funerary inscriptions, the Etruscan Phrases work is supported by a strong grammar and vocabulary based on all texts, small and large. Thus, to clear the mystery of the Etruscan language alleged by such esteemed institutions, it is imperative that the Etruscan Phrases GlossaryA.xls be audited. We mention this since the only prospect of clearing up the Etruscan Mystery is through a verifiable audit of the Etruscan Grammar recorded in Etruscan Phrases. The British Museum, University of Bologna and other "Pallottino School" works have not produced a vocabulary or grammar that can be audited, since their theory is that the Etruscan language is unlike any other known to man, not Indo-European. Etruscan Phrases claims that the Etruscan Language is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian, an Indo-European language. It offers a grammar, declension patterns and regular, measurable shifts between Etruscan and these languages; ergo the work can be easily audited.

We should hope, therefore, that there will be many linguists / scholars who will jump at the chance to clear up the Etruscan Mystery and rewrite the histories so clearly overshadowed by the Pallottino School theories, to help even the museums containing Etruscan artifacts explain a bit more about the items in their displays.

Etruscan GlossaryA.xls an index to about 2,500 Etruscan words that are similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. Declension patterns follow those in Latin. The 2,500 words equal the repeated words in 6,000 words of the major extant texts. The texts have been frozen in time, covering ~700-400 B.C., representing a lens to understanding the early formation of Indo-European languages, particularly the early Italic-Latin-Celtic languages, such as Italian, French & Romanian / Dacian. (By 45 BC. the language was a dead language - no one understood or could write Etruscan)

This GlossaryA works together with Indo-European Table 1 which refutes theories by the Pallottino school of thought that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and an isolate, unlike any other language. It is very close to Latin and, curiously, Romanian, Italian and French. The Latin suffix, "us" shifts to "o" as in Italian (Titus vs Tito); first person conjugation patterns are similar to French and Romanian. This GlossaryA provides a quick look at the grammatical structure of the Etruscan language, how closely it coincides with Latin. A more detailed Declension Table can be seen on the Etruscan Phrases website. These PDF documents facilitate independent confirmation of the words in GlossaryA.xls , the Grammar and Declension Table. All words can be examined from actual images of texts on the Etruscan Phrases website. Over 150 texts, with about 6,000 words can be examined at Etruscan Phrases.

The Etruscans surfaced in Italy about 1,000 B.C., reputed to have arrived from Lydia / Phrygia. The Phrygians originated near Macedonia in Thrace, according to Herodotus. One may therefore inquire whether the ancient Thracians (Dacians, Gettae, modern Romanians), spoke a language common to the Phrygians, at the time of the Trojan War and after (~1180 B.C.). The Thracians, Phrygians and Lydians (also dead languages) were allies of the Trojans, according to the Iliad. Etruscan Phrases finds a common vocabulary among Latin, Italian, French, Romanian, Etruscan and Phrygian. While French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian are considered Romance languages, showing a similar Latin heritage, Etruscan is not, of course, a Romance language, as it preceded Latin, at least in the written form (giving Rome its alphabet).

Resolution of the Etruscan Mystery may be likened to Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B and Jean-François Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics using the Rosetta Stone - written in Egyptian hieroglypics, Demotic and Greek. The decipherment of Etruscan is a bit more challenging, since we have no multilingual Rosetta Stone, but we do have enough vocabulary and grammar to establish that Etruscan is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. (Certainly far more vocabulary and a more extensive grammar is provided in Etruscan Phrases than that used by Ventris to claim translation of Linear B as an old form of Greek)

The Devotional Plates may be an easy entry into an audit, for those who are hesitant to examine the larger texts, such as the Zagreb Mummy (Script Z).

How a Child Acquires Irish

by Brian Ó Broin

Children do not acquire Irish by accident, even in the Gaeltacht. In a world where there are no monolinguals of Irish... more Children do not acquire Irish by accident, even in the Gaeltacht. In a world where there are no monolinguals of Irish and where the borders of all linguistic zones are being destroyed by telecommunications and improved transportation, it takes a formal decision by parents to declare Irish a household language (or to continue with its use as a household language).
Such a decision cannot be made haphazardly or without planning, as the default language for almost all activity in Ireland (even in the Gaeltacht) is now English. Intending Irish-language parents should be discussing the linguistic structure of their homes before their children’s birth, and perhaps even before pregnancy.
Planning ahead is key, as parents must be considering things such as community, family structure, education, and access to media long before these become issues.
Parents whose native language is not Irish are faced with the added difficulty of trying to raise children in a language not their own, often with poor resources for such a task. The best option is to start using the language immediately, regardless of current ability, as those who put off ‘improving’ their Irish never actually get around to it.
Children are learning Irish from the moment of their first breath (and probably before!), so the earlier their access to the language, the better. They must be hearing the language from a parent as often as possible. Most Irish-speaking households outside the Gaeltacht are bilingual, and the recommended language structure is OPOL (‘One parent – one language’).
Children should never be punished for speaking English, but by the same token, they must be highly encouraged to use Irish, even to the point of pretending not to understand them unless they speak Irish. Otherwise they will develop the habit of speaking English to the parent and the linguistic structure of the family will collapse.
Young children will often, perhaps even usually, speak English together if they live in bilingual communities, but there are possible strategies (although a little artificial) that may get them to speak Irish together.
Parents worry a lot about their children developing an English/Irish pidgin (particularly from their interactions with non-native speakers at Gaelscoileanna), but that fear is unfounded. Most Irish-speaking children develop fluency, even if their Irish, lacking the usual native-speaker’s phonetics, does not sound like that of the Gaeltacht.
Parents observe what they think is ‘bad’ Irish from young children, but the structure of Irish means that children develop perfect grammar only gradually (as opposed to English, which has an extremely simple morphology and ‘sounds’ more correct from an earlier age). There is, in fact, little cause to worry about Irish-speaking children, particularly given the number of children now being raised in the language.

Le nom de Toulouse

by Pierre Moret

Pallas, 44, 1996, p. 7-23.

The etymological problem set by the name of Toulouse (Tolósa in greek and roman sources) is here examined. The Celtic... more The etymological problem set by the name of Toulouse (Tolósa in greek and roman sources) is here examined. The Celtic hypothesis is discarded, through lack of precise points of comparison. The most illuminating parallels are to be found in the Iberian Peninsula: they are modern toponyms (under the form Tolosa) and two antique toponyms on the southern side of the Pyrenees, Tolous and Labi-tolosa. Those parallels allow us by way of hypothesis to connect the name of Toulouse with an Aquitan substratum of cognate origin with the non-Indoeuropean languages of the peninsula.

Herald article on dialect research: 11 Feb 2012

by William Lamb

Celtic Origins: Iberian Connections

by William 'Seamus' Hamill-Keays

Essimnus - ein keltischer Name?

by Corinna Scheungraber

to appear in Proceedings Halle 2011

Essimnus / Esimne - a Celtic or Raetic name? Essimnus / Esimne - a Celtic or Raetic name?

Is there a future for regional dialects in Scottish Gaelic?

by William Lamb

Delivered at 'Linguistic attrition; Linguistic creation': a symposium at the University of Aberdeen, 3 December 2011

The strength of the Gaelic dialects is an index - to a great extent - of how strong the language is in its native... more The strength of the Gaelic dialects is an index - to a great extent - of how strong the language is in its native communities. In the 1950s, the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland (SGDS) recorded language data from 207 points, extending from from Caithness in the north, to St Kilda in the west, to Brig O Turk - not far from Glasgow - in the south. These were all traditional Gaelic speaking communities at one time. Today, if we look at these communities, we find that the language is no longer spoken on a day to day basis in most of them, and not at all in many of them. Some of the last speakers of some of these dialects died over 40 years ago. If we look at where our Gaelic medium teachers are from, over half are from only 20 of these points: i.e. 10% of them. Without a change in what is happening in the communities where Gaelic is still spoken as a living language, most of the surviving dialects will be gone in a couple of generations.

Sifting the evidence: New interpretations on Celtic and Non–Celtic personal names of western Hispania in the light of phonetics, composition and suffixation

by Blanca María Prósper

Un alfabetario latino di III sec. a.C., in E. Giorgi, G. Lepore (a cura di), Archeologia nella Valle del Cesano da Suasa a Santa Maria in Portuno (Atti delle Giornate di Studi, 18 dicembre 2008 – Castelleone di Suasa, Corinaldo, 19 dicembre 2008 San Lorenzo in Campo), Bologna 2010, pp. 215-219.

by Andrea Gaucci

Adria: via Spolverin - tombe 46 e 106: il gentilizio Muliu ad Adria, in Padusa XLIV, 2008 (ed. 2009), pp. 81-115. .

by Andrea Gaucci

Aspect in Old Irish: The Case of "Ro-"

by Christopher Yocum

Given at a celtic linguistics symposium in Edinburgh on December 10, 2011.

Case and genre in Gaulish: from Mont Auxois to the Pont d'Ancy

by Bernard Mees

Journal of Celtic Linguistics 12 (2008): 121-138.

A close textual examination of case-marking and role in Gaulish suggests that the instrumental (and ablative) formants... more A close textual examination of case-marking and role in Gaulish suggests that the instrumental (and ablative) formants and functions inherited from Indo-European remained largely independent in use from those of the other oblique cases. Although a distinct morphological locative seems to have been given up at a prehistoric stage, the Gaulish of the Roman period appears to have preserved a much fuller and more synthetic system of grammatical case than did any of the medieval Celtic languages. The practice of projecting Insular Celtic behaviours onto Continental Celtic (or even cross-linguistic abstractions
derived from broader linguistic theory) should not serve as a substitute for analysing Gaulish inscriptions from the perspective of interlingual intertextuality and of properly contextualized epigraphic genre. Gaulish should be understood principally as a closely historicized inscriptional language, its attested expressions constrained by typical ancient Mediterranean epigraphic pragmatics, yet representing an idiosyncratic development of Celtic linguistic tradition nonetheless.

Una nueva gentilidad en un epígrafe de San Leonardo de Yagüe (Soria)

by Joaquín L. Gómez-Pantoja

Co-authored with Sara Fernández Medina and published in Ficheiro Epigráfico 61, 1999, 277.

What follows is a full edition for an ancient Roman epitaph from San Leonardo de Yagüe, Soria, in Central Spain. The... more What follows is a full edition for an ancient Roman epitaph from San Leonardo de Yagüe, Soria, in Central Spain. The most remarkable feature of the tombstone is the word in the plural genitive case (Saigleiniqum) that accompanies the defunct's name, since it adds up to the growing list of gentilitates or clan names, which many inscriptions from Celtiberia and neighboring area feature prominently.

LAS TESSERAE DE LA COLECCIÓN CERRALBO. VIEJAS CONOCIDAS, NUEVAS PERSPECTIVAS

by alicia torija

La tésera celtibérica de Sasamón (K.14.1) Emerita LXXII

by Francisco Javier Rubio Orecilla

In this paper the Celtiberian tessera K.14.1 from
Sasamon is analyzed. The inscription is a twofold more In this paper the Celtiberian tessera K.14.1 from
Sasamon is analyzed. The inscription is a twofold
hospitium document between IroreKiios, qualificated
of monituuKoos, and Nemaios. Likely monituuKoos,
which we find as a derivation basis of
the epitheton of the Matres Monitucinae, is an
ethnic adjective; nevertheless it could also be explained
as an appelative containing *moni- ‘legal
protection’ and *tuk(o)- ‘descendance, sons’. On
the other side of the inscription the word aleTuures
should be a nominative plural, agreeing both
IroreKiios and Nemaios; but there are so many
formal problems concerning such a stem *aleTur-,
that we must seek for another solution. AleTuures
could also be a nominative singular, agreeing with
Nemaios; but its identification as an ethnic designation
(*alleto-rēgs = allot-rīg-es?) would be very
problematic. Finally, it could be a personal name
(allthough without parallels in the hispanoceltic
onomastics), and then the pact would have two
participants, the surprisingly unidentified individual
aleTuures on one side, and on the other IroreKiios
the *Monitucean and Nemaios, whose
mutual relation would thereupon be misterious.
Etymologies for the toponyms Munébrega and
Monesma (both from *mono- ‘mountain’), ethnic
names as autrigones, allotriges or Celtiberian
words as sToTeroi are here propossed or discussed.

Reconstruction Database

by Rachel Carpenter

This is a read-only copy of the Database, which accompanies the paper Mind Your P’s and Q’s: Revisiting the Insular Celtic hypothesis through working towards an original phonetic reconstruction of Insular Celtic .

If you are interested in consulting the Database and viewing the actual data used in Mind Your P's and Q's you need to download a copy of the Database in order to view it as Scribd cannot generate a preview of this oversize Excel file.

Reconstructing the Brythonic Consonants

by Rachel Carpenter

"Reconstructing the Brythonic Consonants" was my final project for LING S052 Historical and Comparative Linguistics at Swarthmore College in the Fall of 2008. It has since led to further research on the Celtic languages, including my senior thesis in linguistics, "Mind Your P’s and Q’s: Revisiting the Insular Celtic hypothesis through working towards an original phonetic reconstruction of Insular Celtic."

Mind Your P’s and Q’s: Revisiting the Insular Celtic hypothesis through working towards an original phonetic reconstruction of Insular Celtic

by Rachel Carpenter

Senior Thesis in Linguistics at Swarthmore College.
This is the revised version of the thesis, following defenses and honors defenses.

Mac, mac, mac, mab, mab, mab- all mean ‘son’, inis, innis, hinjey, enez, ynys, enys - all mean ‘island.’ Anyone can... more Mac, mac, mac, mab, mab, mab- all mean ‘son’, inis, innis, hinjey, enez, ynys, enys - all mean ‘island.’ Anyone can see the similarities within these two cognate sets from orthographic similarity alone. This is because Irish, Scottish, Manx, Breton, Welsh, and Cornish are related. As the six remaining Celtic languages, they unsurprisingly share similarities in their phonetics, phonology, semantics, morphology, and syntax. However, the exact relationship between these languages and their predecessors has long been disputed in Celtic linguistics. Even today, the battle continues between two firmly-entrenched camps of scholars- those who favor the traditional P-Celtic and Q-Celtic divisions of the Celtic family tree, and those who support the unification of the Brythonic and Goidelic branches of the tree under Insular Celtic, with this latter idea being the Insular Celtic hypothesis. While much reconstructive work has been done, and much evidence has been brought forth, both for and against the existence of Insular Celtic, no one scholar has attempted a phonetic reconstruction of this hypothesized proto-language from its six modern descendents. In the pages that follow, I will introduce you to the Celtic languages; explore the controversy surrounding the structure of the Celtic family tree; and present a partial phonetic reconstruction of Insular Celtic through the application of the comparative method as outlined by Lyle Campbell (2006) to self-collected data from the summers of 2009 and 2010 in my efforts to offer you a novel perspective on an on-going debate in the field of historical Celtic linguistics.

Rubio.Orecilla.1999.Aproximación lingüística al bronce de Torrijo

by Francisco Javier Rubio Orecilla

The bronze from Torrijo presented at the VII Colloquium of Palaeohispanic Languages and Cultures (Zaragoza, 1997)... more The bronze from Torrijo presented at the VII Colloquium of Palaeohispanic Languages and Cultures (Zaragoza, 1997) shows us a complex text. Graphically (...) could be established a transition group between the West and East variants of the Celtiberian semisyllabary. There are syntactical and lexical parallels with the bronze from Cortono (K.0.7), which allow the identification of tures as a verbal form, probably a 3rd. sg. (-s < *-s-t). In the second half of the inscription (...) appears ekue, a tonic varlant of the enclitic conjunction -kue,  (...) possibly similar to lat. atque, gaul. etic < *eti-kwe. (...) As a whole, the inscription is difficult, but it is evident that the words eskenim (perhaps: "from another gens"?) and launi (perhaps: "wife"?) in the first half of the text, are the focus of the inscription.