Re: Cimbri Name = the thieves

At 11:53:19 AM on Monday, November 19, 2007, tgpedersen
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

>> Some dialects of English still have /ü/: in parts of
>> Appalachia and some dialects of Scotland;

Not still, but again, if you're thinking of OE /y/. The OE
front rounded vowels were lost in the North; the later
Northern front rounded vowels had other sources.

>> I'd think most dialects of English have /ö/

That seems unlikely, if you mean present-day dialects.

>> But I ask if Celtic languages have these sounds. I
>> don't think Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish have /ü/ and I
>> don't know about /ö/

> AFAIK they had in earlier stages.

I don't believe that Old Irish had them. If I remember
correctly from Jackson, Celtic /u:/ > Brit. /ü:/ > Brit.
/i:/, yielding /i/ in Welsh, Cornish, and Breton; Old Welsh,
Old Cornish, and Old Breton had /ü/ from /u/ in some
contexts; late OCorc. and OBret. developed /ö:/ from /O:/;
and I'm sure that I've forgotten some. They aren't Common
Celtic, so far as I know.

Brian