Insular Celtic languages: Difference between revisions

'''Insular Celtic languages''' are the group of [[Celtic languages]] ofspoken in [[Brittany]], [[Great Britain]], [[Ireland]], and the [[Isle of Man]]. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Brittany, [[France]]. The [[Continental Celtic languages]], although once quite widely spoken in [[continental Europe|mainland Europe]] and in [[Anatolia]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Eska|first=Joseph F.|editor=John T. Koch|encyclopedia=Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia|title=Galatian language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&pg=PA788|year=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|volume=Volume III: G—L|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=1-85109-440-7}}</ref> are extinct.

The "'''Insular Celtic hypothesis"''' is athe theory that theythese languages [[historical linguistics|evolved]] together in those places, having a later [[common descent|common ancestor]] than any of the [[Continental Celtic languages]] such as [[Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]], [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]], [[Galatian language|Galatian]], and [[Lepontic language|Lepontic]], among others, all of which are long extinct. This linguistic division of Celtic languages into Insular and Continental contrasts with the [[Celtic languages#Classification|P/Q Celtic hypothesis]].

The proponents of the Insular hypothesis (such as Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; and Schrijver 1995) point to shared innovations among these &ndash; chiefly:

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]] ([[Celtic languages#Classification|Q-Celtic]]) on the other, may be superficial, owing to a [[language contact]] phenomenon. They add the identical sound shift ({{IPA|/kʷ/}} to {{IPA|/p/}}) could have occurred independently in the predecessors of Gaulish and Brittonic, or have spread through language contact between those two groups. Further, the [[Italic languages]] had a similar divergence between [[Latino-Faliscan]], which kept {{IPA|/kʷ/}}, and [[Osco-Umbrian]], which changed it to {{IPA|/p/}}. Some historians, such as [[George Buchanan]] in the 16th century, had suggested the Brythonic or P-Celtic language was a descendant of the [[Pictish language|Picts']] language. Indeed, the tribe of the Pritani has [[Cruthin|Qritani]] (and, orthographically orthodox in modern form but counterintuitively written Cruthin) (Q-Celtic) cognate forms.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/picts/language.htm |title=The language of the Picts |website=ORKNEYJAR |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801224307/https://www.orkneyjar.com/history/picts/language.htm |archive-date= Aug 1, 2023 }}</ref>{{efn|All other research into Pictish has been described as a postscript to Buchanan's work. This view may be something of an oversimplification: {{harvnb|Forsyth|1997}} offers a short account of the debate; {{harvnb|Cowan|McDonald|2000}} may be helpful for a broader view.</ref><ref>[http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/picts/language.htm The language of the Picts, Orkneyjar]</ref>}}

TheUnder the Insular hypothesis, the family tree of the Insularinsular Celtic languages is thus as follows:

| ''{{lang|gd|cuiridh mi ''}} “I"I put/will put”put" || ''{{lang|gd|cha chuir mi}} '' "I “I don’tdon't put/will not put”put"

| ''{{lang|gd|òlaidh e ''}} “he"he drinks/will drink”drink" || ''{{lang|gd|chan òl e ''}} “he"he doesn't drink/will not drink”drink"

| ''{{lang|gd|ceannaichidh iad ''}} “they"they buy/will buy”buy" || ''{{lang|gd|cha cheannaich iad ''}} “they"they don't buy/will not buy”buy"

Note that theThe verb forms in the above examples happen to be the same with any subject personal pronouns, not just with the particular persons chosen in the example. Also, the combination of [[tense–aspect–mood]] properties inherent in these verb forms is non-past but otherwise indefinite with respect to time, being compatible with a variety of non-past times, and context indicates the time. The sense can be completely tenseless, for example when asserting that something is always true or always happens. This verb form has erroneously been termed ‘future’'future' in many pedagogical grammars. A correct, neutral term ‘INDEF1’'INDEF1' has been used in linguistics texts.

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]] {{transltransliteration|sa|bharati}} "s/he carries"), while conjunct {{lang|sga|beir}} was thought to be from *{{PIE|''bʰeret''}} (compare Sanskrit {{transltransliteration|sa|a-bharat}} "s/he was carrying").

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>“"[http://ling.huji.ac.il/Staff/Ariel_Shisha-Halevy/docs/Celtic-Coptic-Syntax-2003.pdf Celtic Syntax, Egyptian-Coptic Syntax] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721134007/http://ling.huji.ac.il/Staff/Ariel_Shisha-Halevy/docs/Celtic-Coptic-Syntax-2003.pdf |date=2011-07-21 }}”", in: ''Das Alte Ägypten und seine Nachbarn: Festschrift Helmut Satzinger'', Krems: Österreichisches Literaturforum, 245-302</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>Karel{{cite Jongeling,journal ''Comparing Welsh and Hebrew'', CNWS Publications 81 (Leiden: Centre of Non-Western Studies, 2000), pp. 149-50 (cited by Steve Hewitt,| '[url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00141.x | doi=10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00141.x | title=The Question of a Hamito-Semitic Substratum in Insular Celtic]', ''| year=2009 | last1=Hewitt | first1=Steve | journal=Language and Linguistics Compass'', | volume=3/4 (2009),| 972–95issue=4 (p.| 976),pages=972–995 {{DOI|10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00141}}).</ref> [[Ranko Matasović]] (2012) likewise argued that the "Insular Celtic languages were subject to strong influences from an unknown, presumably non-Indo-European substratum" and found the syntactic parallelisms between Insular Celtic and Afro-Asiatic languages to be "probably not accidental". He argued that their similarities arose from "a large linguistic macro-area, encompassing parts of NW Africa, as well as large parts of Western Europe, before the arrival of the speakers of Indo-European, including Celtic".<ref>Ranko Matasović (2012). [http://www.jolr.ru/files/(101)jlr2012-8(160-164).pdf The substratum in Insular Celtic]. ''Journal of Language Relationship'' • Вопросы языкового родства • 8 (2012) • Pp. 153—168.</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>Steve{{cite Hewitt,journal | '[url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00141.x | doi=10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00141.x | title=The Question of a Hamito-Semitic Substratum in Insular Celtic]', ''| year=2009 | last1=Hewitt | first1=Steve | journal=Language and Linguistics Compass'', | volume=3/4 (2009),| 972–95,issue=4 {{DOI|10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00141 pages=972–995 }}.</ref> Isaac argues that the 20 points identified by Gensler are trivial, dependencies, or vacuous. Thus, he considers the theory to be not just unproven but also wrong. Instead, the similarities between Insular Celtic and Afro-Asiatic could have evolved independently.

==References=Sources===