Re: Celtic/Germanic

--- In cybalist@..., "Christopher Gwinn" <sonno3@...> wrote:

>
> > From the little I know of Celtic languages, with respect

to "style"

> > they fit the stereotypical description of things Celtic:
> Extravagant,
> > when not downright suppletive then extremely complicated

paradigms,

> a
> > typical elite language, that it would take a lifetime to learn
> > properly
>
> Come on - nearly every IE language takes a considerable amount of
> time to learn properly, with even some native speakers never truly
> mastering the language in their lifetimes (usually based on their
> education level). Celtic languages are certainly no more harder

than

> Russian or Czech, and I really don't know how you can call Celtic
> langauges typically "elite". I think your admitted lack of

knowledge

> of Celtic linguistics forces you to see more complexity in them

than

> they actually possess.
>
> > (and I am pretty sure a good deal of the decade-long
> > education of druids included Pan.nini-like rules learnt by

heart),

> > the kind of language students flee from at school, if they have

any

> > other interest than language for language's sake. And also
> > diversified - each Celtic tribe would have a linguistic axe to
> grind
> > with the neighbor tribe.
>
> <chuckling> What would possibly make you think that? What evidence

do

> you have of this? Do you have a linguistic axe to grind with YOUR
> nighbors?

Well, I don't have Celtic neighbors. But this is what Holger Pedersen
has to say about Celtic languages: (from: Sprogvidenskaben i det 19.
aarhundrede (1924))
..."How complicated the whole system was is apparent i.a. from the
fact that the most recent comprehensive exposition of the grammar of
the Celtic languages has had to use 240 pages on a survey of the
irregular verbs".
and as examples he provides:
do-sluindi "he denies"
ni-dilti "he does not deny"
na derlind "that I shall not deny"
and
ad-fiadam "we announce"
ad-cuaid "he has announced"
con écius "so that I can announce"

Personally I'd rather learn Gothic, if my livelihood depended on it.
It seems a good deal more regular.

>
> - Chris Gwinn

Torsten