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 ' In modern Irish, the 'q' has been replaced by 'c' so we now have 'Mac.'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.
- Celtic Ps and Qs Smokey Stover 09/March/05
- Celtic Ps and Qs Shae 09/March/05
- Celtic Ps and Qs Lewis 10/March/05
- Last word on Celtic Ps and Qs Shae 11/March/05
- Celtic Ps and Qs Lewis 10/March/05
- Celtic Ps and Qs Shae 09/March/05