Brythonic Languages - Characteristics

Characteristics

The Brythonic branch is also referred to as P-Celtic (like Gaulish) because the Brythonic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European phoneme *kw is p as opposed to the Goidelic c. Such nomenclature usually implies an acceptance of the P-Celtic hypothesis rather than the Insular Celtic hypothesis (for a discussion, see Celtic languages).

Other major characteristics include:

  • the treatment of -m, -n as -am, -an.
  • initial s- followed by a vowel was changed to h-
    • Welsh hen "old", hir "long", hafal "similar"
    • Breton hen "ancient", hir "long", hañval "similar"
    • Cornish hen "ancient", hir "long", haval "similar"
    • Irish sean "old", sior "long", samail "similar"
  • Brythonic retains original nasals before -t
    • Breton kant "hundred" vs. Irish céad
  • sp, sr, sv/sw became f, fr, chw
    • *swero "toy, game" became Welsh chwarae and Breton c'hoari (but Cornish gwari)
    • *srokna "nostril" became Welsh ffroen, Cornish frig and Breton froen.
  • all other initial s- fell before consonants
    • smeru became Welsh mêr "marrow"
    • slemon became Welsh llyfn, Cornish leven and Breton levn "smooth"
  • w (written u in Latin texts and ou in Greek) became gw in initial position, w internally, where in Gaelic it is f in initial position and disappears internally
    • windos "white" became Welsh gwyn, Cornish gwynn, Breton gwenn
    • wassos "servant, young man" became Welsh, Cornish and Breton gwas
  • double plosives transformed into spirants: pp, cc, tt became f, ch (c'h), th (z) before a vowel or liquid
    • cippus > Breton kef, Cornish kyf, Welsh cyff, "tree trunk"
    • cattos > Breton kaz, Cornish kath, Welsh cath, "cat"
    • bucca > Breton boc'h, Cornish bogh, Welsh boch, "cheek"
  • single voiceless plosives and voiced d, b, and m in an intervocalic position became soft spirants
    • Welsh dd, th, f
    • Cornish dh, th, v
    • Breton z, zh, v

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