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{{Short description|Group of Celtic languages of Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox language family
|name = Insular Celtic
|region = [[Brittany]], [[Cornwall]], [[Ireland]], the [[Isle of Man]], [[Scotland]], and [[Wales]]
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = [[Celtic languages|Celtic]]
|child1 = [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]]
|child2 = [[Goidelic languages|Goidelic]]
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}}
'''Insular Celtic languages''' are the group of [[Celtic languages]]
Six Insular Celtic languages are extant (in all cases written and spoken) in two distinct groups:
{{tree list}}
* [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic (or Brythonic) languages]]: [[Breton language|Breton]], [[Cornish language|Cornish]], and [[Welsh language|Welsh]]▼
* Insular Celtic languages
▲** [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic (or Brythonic) languages
*** [[Breton language|Breton]]
*** [[Cornish language|Cornish]]
*** [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
** [[Goidelic languages]]
*** [[Irish language|Irish]]
*** [[Manx language|Manx]]
*** [[Scottish Gaelic]]
{{tree list/end}}
==Insular Celtic hypothesis==
The
The proponents of the Insular hypothesis (such as Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; and Schrijver 1995) point to shared innovations among these – chiefly:
* [[inflected preposition]]s
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* differentiation of [[Dependent and independent verb forms|absolute and conjunct verb endings]] as found extensively in Old Irish and less so in Middle Welsh (see [[Proto-Celtic language#Morphology|Morphology of the Proto-Celtic language]]).
The proponents assert that a strong partition between the Brittonic languages with [[Gaulish]] ([[P-Celtic]]) on one side and the Goidelic languages with [[Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]] (
{{clade
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! scope="col" | Conjunct/Dependent
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In Middle Welsh, the distinction is seen most clearly in proverbs following the formula "X happens, Y does not happen" (Evans 1964: 119):
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* {{lang|wlm|'''Chwaryit''' mab noeth, '''ny chware''' mab newynawc}} "A naked boy plays, a hungry boy plays not"
The older analysis of the distinction, as reported by Thurneysen (1946, 360 ff.), held that the absolute endings derive from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] "primary endings" (used in present and future tenses) while the conjunct endings derive from the "secondary endings" (used in past tenses). Thus Old Irish absolute {{lang|sga|beirid}} "s/he carries" was thought to be from *{{PIE|''bʰereti''}} (compare [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] {{
Today, however, most Celticists agree that Cowgill (1975), following an idea present already in Pedersen (1913, 340 ff.), found the correct solution to the origin of the absolute/conjunct distinction: an [[enclitic]] particle, reconstructed as *{{PIE|''es''}} after consonants and *{{PIE|''s''}} after vowels, came in second position in the sentence. If the first word in the sentence was another particle, *{{PIE|''(e)s''}} came after that and thus before the verb, but if the verb was the first word in the sentence, *{{PIE|''(e)s''}} was cliticized to it. Under this theory, then, Old Irish absolute {{lang|sga|beirid}} comes from Proto-Celtic *{{PIE|''bereti-s''}}, while conjunct {{lang|sga|ní beir}} comes from *{{PIE|''nī-s bereti''}}.
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== Possible pre-Celtic substratum ==
Insular Celtic, unlike [[Continental Celtic languages|Continental Celtic]], shares some structural characteristics with various [[Afro-Asiatic languages]] which are rare in other Indo-European languages. These similarities include [[verb–subject–object]] [[word order]], singular verbs with plural post-verbal subjects, a genitive construction similar to [[construct state]], prepositions with fused inflected pronouns ("conjugated prepositions" or "prepositional pronouns"), and oblique relatives with pronoun copies. Such resemblances were noted as early as 1621 with regard to Welsh and the [[Hebrew language]].<ref>Steve Hewitt, "The Question of a Hamito-Semitic Substratum in Insular Celtic and Celtic from the West", Chapter 14 in John T. Koch, Barry Cunliffe, ''Celtic from the West'' '''3'''</ref><ref>John Davies, ''Antiquae linguae Britannicae rudimenta'', 1621</ref>
The hypothesis that the Insular Celtic languages had features from an Afro-Asiatic [[substratum (linguistics)|substratum]] (Iberian and Berber languages) was first proposed by [[John Morris-Jones]] in 1899.<ref>J. Morris Jones, "Pre-Aryan Syntax in Insular Celtic", [https://books.google.com/books?id=t50ZAAAAMAAJ&pg=LP617 Appendix B] of [[John Rhys]], [[David Brynmor Jones]], ''The Welsh People'', 1900</ref> The theory has been supported by several linguists since: [[Henry Jenner]] (1904);<ref>Henry Jenner, ''Handbook of the Cornish Language'', London 1904 [https://archive.org/details/handbookofcornis00jennuoft full text]</ref> [[Julius Pokorny]] (1927);<ref>''Das nicht-indogermanische Substrat im Irischen'' in [[Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie]] 16, 17 and 18</ref> Heinrich Wagner (1959);<ref>Gaeilge theilinn (1959) and subsequent articles</ref> [[Orin Gensler]] (1993);<ref>"A Typological Evaluation of Celtic/Hamito-Semitic Syntactic Parallels", Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1993 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8p00g5sd</ref> [[Theo Vennemann]] (1995);<ref>Theo Vennemann, "Etymologische Beziehungen im Alten Europa". Der GinkgoBaum: Germanistisches Jahrbuch für Nordeuropa 13. 39-115, 1995</ref> and Ariel Shisha-Halevy (2003).<ref>
Others have suggested that rather than the Afro-Asiatic influencing Insular Celtic directly, both groups of languages were influenced by a now lost substrate. This was suggested by Jongeling (2000).<ref>
The Afro-Asiatic substrate theory, according to [[Raymond Hickey]], "has never found much favour with scholars of the Celtic languages".<ref name="Hickey2013">{{cite book|author=Raymond Hickey|title=The Handbook of Language Contact|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fr5t1KLL6oC&pg=PT535|date=24 April 2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-44869-4|pages=535–}}</ref> The theory was criticised by Kim McCone in 2006,<ref>Kim McCone, ''The origins and development of the Insular Celtic verbal complex'', Maynooth studies in Celtic linguistics '''6''', 2006, {{isbn|0901519464}}. Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland, 2006.</ref> Graham Isaac in 2007,<ref>"Celtic and Afro-Asiatic" in'' The Celtic Languages in Contact'', Papers from the Workshop within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies, Bonn, 26–27 July 2007, p. 25-80 [https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/691/file/celtic_languages_in_contact.pdf full text]</ref> and Steve Hewitt in 2009.<ref>
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
*{{cite book| last=Cowgill |first=Warren |author-link=Warren Cowgill |year=1975 |chapter=The origins of the Insular Celtic conjunct and absolute verbal endings |editor=H. Rix|title=Flexion und Wortbildung: Akten der V. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Regensburg, 9.–14. September 1973 |location=Wiesbaden |pages=40–70 |publisher=Reichert |isbn=3-920153-40-5}}
*{{cite book |title=Alba : Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages |first1=Edward J. |last1=Cowan |first2=R Andrew |last2=McDonald | location= East Linton |publisher=Tuckwell Press |date=2000 |isbn=9781862321519 |oclc=906858507}}
*{{cite book |title=Language in Pictland : the case against 'non-Indo-European Pictish' | first=Katherine |last=Forsyth |series=Studia Hameliana, 2. |date=1997 |isbn=9789080278554 |oclc= 906776861 |location=Utrecht |publisher=De Keltische Draak}}
*{{cite journal| last=McCone |first=Kim |year=1991 |title=The PIE stops and syllabic nasals in Celtic |journal=Studia Celtica Japonica |volume=4 |pages=37–69}}
*{{cite book| last=McCone |first=Kim |year=1992 |chapter=Relative Chronologie: Keltisch |title=Rekonstruktion und relative Chronologie: Akten Der VIII. Fachtagung Der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Leiden, 31. August–4. September 1987 |editor=R. Beekes |editor2=A. Lubotsky |editor3=J. Weitenberg|pages=12–39 |publisher=Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck |isbn=3-85124-613-6}}
*{{cite book| last=Schrijver |first=Peter |year=1995 |title=Studies in British Celtic historical phonology |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=90-5183-820-4}}
*{{cite book| last=Schumacher |first=Stefan |year=2004 |title=Die keltischen Primärverben. Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon |location=Innsbruck |pages=97–114 |publisher=Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck |isbn=3-85124-692-6}}
{{refend}}
{{Celts}}
{{Celtic languages}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Insular Celtic Languages}}
[[Category:Insular Celtic languages| ]]
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