Re: survival of celtic

From: indravayu
Message: 12193
Date: 2002-01-30

> I have browsed through Whatmough's "Dialects of Ancient Gaul" a
>number of times but I can´t recollect any mention of lenition in late
> Gaulish - does anyone have any more information on more recent
>research? Does anyone have any information on the Swiss toponymy
>which suggests that the local Celtic dialect had undergone similar
>lenition to Brittonic?

I know that the info you are looking for regarding the possible late
survival of Celtic dialects in areas later dominated by Germanic
langauges is certainly in the DAG, though it is comprised mainly of a
bibliography and brief discussion. I don't have the page numbers off-
hand, though.
I can also recommend that you pick up Pierr-Yves Lambert's La Langue
Gauloise - it is the standard text on Gaulish (and a new, updated
edition is even in the works - the original was published in 1994, I
believe - Editions Errance, Paris).
To give you an example of Gaulish lenition - note the (acc. plural)
form anuana "names" found in the Larzac inscription - this is for an
original *anmana (but compare this to [instrumental plural] anmanbe
in the Chateaubleu Tile).


>Also the last king of Strathclyde ´Owain´ (or some other variant on
>this Latin derived name) is interesting but obviously not evidence
>of significant survival of the language in lower strata of society,

Old Welsh Eugein (Middle Welsh Owein) is not derived from Latin - it
is a native Brittonic form, from an original *Auiganios, and is the
equivalent of Old Irish Ugaine, I believe.

- Chris Gwinn