Re: Celtic Ps and Qs

Posted by Smokey Stover on March 09, 2005

In Reply to: Celtic Ps and Qs posted by Shae on March 09, 2005

: Just an explanatory note to my response to ESC below:

: There are two surviving dialects of the Celtic language. Linguists label them as Q-Celtic and P-Celtic. Irish, Scottish and Manx are Q-Celtic and are believed to be older than P-Celtic. The dialect spoken in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany is/was P-Celtic.

: The letter 'Q' doesn't exist now in the Gaelic alphabet, but it was used in the earliest inscriptions on stone to express the 'k' sound. Thus 'Maq' was 'son of . . ' In modern Irish, the 'q' has been replaced by 'c' so we now have 'Mac.'

: The Brythonic Celts used the P-Celtic dialect. They used the 'P' sound instead of the 'Q' sound. So, 'son of . . .' was pronounced 'map' as opposed to 'mac.' In modern Welsh, it's often abbreviated to "'ap"

: Just thought you all should know that.
:
I am indeed glad to know that. Since the entire western end of Europe, Ireland through France and northern Italy, was populated by Celts, this would mean that the Celts, wherever they may have come from, would have landed (or survived) in Ireland earlier than in, say, northern Italy. Or, since newer can signify a greater rate of change, perhaps the Brythonic Celts were less conservative in adopting linguistic change. Or perhaps the Brythonic areas were overrun by Celts from a different part of the Celtic homeland or at a later date than those who entered Ireland. Any doctrine on this available? And by the way, you didn't mention the William / Gwyliam / Guillaume differentiation. Nor the oddity of the lateral fricative in Welsh. SS

• Re: Celtic Ps and Qs Shae 09/March/05
  • Re: Celtic Ps and Qs Lewis 10/March/05
    • Last word on Celtic Ps and Qs Shae 11/March/05