Re: The oddness of Gaelic words in p-

--- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mkelkar2003"
> <swatimkelkar@...> wrote:
> >
> >
>

http://dnghu.org/Indo-European-Languages/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=5a341258abb3261b7aae1ad952c54a0d

> >
> Thank you, MKelkar. Because, in it, I find MacBain's
> An Etymological
> Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, with 2 pages
> worth of words in p-
> http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb28.html#MB.P
> http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb29.html
> http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb30.html
> which is odd, since Gaelic is a q-Celtic language.
> Some of the frequent explanations from Latin are
> undoubtedly correct,
> but you're struck by the tortuousness of some of the
> derivations, both
> the semantic and the morphological ones ('formed
> from', indeed), and
> the equally frequent explanations from English are
> no really an
> explanation either since 'true' Germanic words can't
> have p- either;
> some are even not known in other Germanic languages
> than English. So,
> are they Venetic, and have we found the missing
> language of Eastern
> England? It does sort of look vaguely Italic.
> Torsten
>

Scots Gaelic words beginning in /p-/ are either going
to be
innovations in Scots Gaelic,
or loanwords
from Germanic (Scots, English, Flemish, Norn or Old
Norse);
from Italic/Romance (Latin, French);
from P-Celtic (Cumbric, Pictish);
or from its hypothetical (non-IE?) precursor.
These are the known languages spoken in Scotland
Take a look at what is known about Pictish and see
what you can find