Re: Gemination in Celtic

From: Anders R. Joergensen
Message: 56249
Date: 2008-03-30

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud"
<fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:
>
> We have been mixing my initial
> proposal with Kluge's Law,
> so
> I will restate my point of view :
> We are looking for examples of
> Gemination of unvoiced in Celtic
> where Osco-Umbrian also has
> gemination while the rest of PIE
> has a voiced consonant
> or suggests H2 was in the skeletton
> of the root.
> Any other examples that are
> Kluge-nizable are irrelevant.
>
> The Examples
> to be discussed are for example :
>
> pott- "pottery" < *kwoH2-t-eH2
> k_w_H2 as in Greek kaFiƓ "to burn"

Again, some actual examples from Celtic languages of this word would
strengthen your case considerably. As it stands now, it just seems to
be a word in Western Romance(?) and Germanic without an etymology.
That doesn't seem like reason enough to call it Celtic.

>
> bukk- "male"
> Tsigane, avestique buz < *bu-g-

But we can't rule out a loan from Germanic for this word, can we?

>
> kass- "hate"
> ka:dos
> Av sadra

I'm not sure I get it anymore. What does your geminate *-tt- (< h2t)
become in the attested Celtic languages?

>
> lakk- "slack"
> Greek lag-aros

Again, this is OIr. <lac> /lag/, ModIr. lag /lag/. So it doesn't seem
to be an example of your law. It must be PCelt. *laggo-

>
> lu?k "hiccup"
> Gaelic aileag
> Greek lug-mos

Some additional details would be helpful in figuring out what you
mean. Is your Gaelic _aileag_ taken from MacBain's etymological
dictionary? Unfortunately, I don't have LEIA and DIL here with me, so
I can't check earlier attestations and the possible etymology.
Anyway, the word has final /-g/, so I'm not sure I see the relevance.

>
> makk "eat"
> smag "taste"

What Celtic words are you thinking of?

>
> mrekk- "speckled"
> Lituanian margas
>
> Possible
>
> V.ir ad-glad-ur < -tt- ?
> hra:date
> kekhla:da

This has consistent single <d> in OIr., i.e. /D/ (lenited d), the
reflex of PCelt. single *d.

Anders