At 4:04:09 PM on Thursday, July 19, 2007, tgpedersen wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <BMScott@...> wrote:
>> At 7:13:42 PM on Monday, July 2, 2007, tgpedersen wrote:
>>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
>>> <BMScott@> wrote:
>>>> At 6:11:09 AM on Monday, July 2, 2007, tgpedersen wrote:
>> [...]
>>>>> How common is this b-/p- alternation?
>>>> It seems to be quite rare. It also seems (on very
>>>> cursory search) to be mostly Sc.Gael.
[...]
> You seem to have left out a number of non-foreign pairs of
> items in p-/b- in McBain:
I *said* that it was a cursory search. Also, I wasn't using
McBain; I was using the much more extensive dictionary
compiled by Dwelly for Sc.Gael. and Dinneen's for Irish.
(And as I noted before, pairs found only in Sc.Gael. are
pretty nearly useless for your purpose.)
> babag "tassle" / pab "shag, refuse of flax"
It's distinctly disingenuous to call this non-foreign when
you've read the <pab> entry in McBain. <Babag> is a
diminutive of <bab>, which may be from ME; <pab> is from EIr
<pop(p)> 'a shoot, a tendril (of a plant), also <pap>, which
may be from Latin.
> breitheal/breathal/preathal "confusion of mind"
> brog "stimulate, an awl" from Sc. brog, prog
Where 'Sc.' means 'Scots', the Gmc. language descended from
northern varieties of OE, so if McBain is right, this is not
a native word. McBain also notes that Thurneysen took the
Sc.Gail. word to be a borrowing from French.
> buinne/boinne/puinne "a cataract, tide"
And McBain explicitly says that <puinne> is a Sutherland and
West Ross local variant.
> beithir/peithir "thunderbolt"
Dwelly takes <peithir> to be a localized dialect form.
McBain points out that the word is <beithir> 'a serpent, any
wild beast, a monster, a large skate', from EIr <beithir> 'a
bear', and that the 'thunderbolt' sense is a figurative
extension. The native status of the word is in doubt, as
McBain notes; the DIL mentions that it has been derived from
ON <ber(a)> and that this derivation has also been disputed.
> biorraid/pioraid "hat, cap"
McBain notes that this is from English <biretta>, from Late
Latin <birretum>; the DIL s.v. <birrét> makes it a Latin or
Romance loanword. In any case it's clearly not native.
> bleid/pleid "solicitation"
> blosc/plosc "palpitate, throb"
What McBain actually has is <plosg>, EIr <blosc>, and a
cross-reference to <blosg>, which is glossed 'sound a horn',
MIr <blosc> 'voice'. The DIL makes it <blosc> 'a sound, a
noise, a crash'. Obviously the word originally had /b-/,
/p-/ being a later development in Sc.Gael.
> brasgan/prasgan "a group, flock"
If McBain is correct in suggesting a relationship with Ir.
<prosnán>, this is from EIr <brosna> 'faggot(s), bundle of
firewood', the connecting link being 'bundle, group';
Matasovic derives this from PCelt. *brusniyo- 'faggot',
(bundle of) firewood', from PIE *bHrews- 'break'. Here at
last we seem to have an example of /b-/ > /p-/ in Irish,
whether the Sc.Gael. word is related or not.
> brosnaich/prosnaich "incite"
From EIr <brostaid> 'urges, incites, stirs up', which
according to the DIL is a loan from ON.
Brian