17-03-2004 17:51, Daniel J. Milton wrote:
> Initial p- simply disappears in Old Irish. I find sources that
> suggest this is not an Irish idiosyncrasy, but a proto-Celtic
> feature. Maybe someone can make a more definitve statement here.
Pre-Celtic initial or intervocalic *p (also when adjacent to a liquid in
word-initial positions) eventually dissapeared everywhere in Celtic
through gradual lenition: *p > *f > *h > zero. It seems to have been a
fricative rather than phonological zero in Proto-Celtic and a glottal
glide ([h]) in early Celtic dialects and Ogam Irish (but not in Gaulish
as known from inscriptions), cf. the rendering of probable etymological
*p in old Celtic names with Latin <h> (Helvetii, Hercynia).
Piotr