Re: The oddness of Gaelic words in p-

From: tgpedersen
Message: 58960
Date: 2008-06-01

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> At 5:51:55 AM on Sunday, June 1, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> > <BMScott@> wrote:
>
> >> At 4:40:57 AM on Saturday, May 31, 2008, tgpedersen
> >> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> It appears that you'd still rather rely on uninformed
> >> impressions and a very dated work than do any serious
> >> investigation.
>
> > I was relying on McBain's claiming those words occur in
> > Gaelic. Don't they any more?
>
> Playing the innocent again, I see.

What are the charges, mr. Grand Inquisitor?


> Very well, I'll spell it out for you: you give no evidence of being
> qualified to comment on the quality of MacBain's etymologies,
> because you give no evidence of knowing much of anything about the
> language or its writing system.

I assumed that the letter 'p' stood for the phoneme 'p', since that
was necessary for my line of reasoning. If you think there is
something I overlooked, please don't hesiate to say so.


> > And as to serious investigation: I present my half-baked
> > ides here on Cybalist, because I know people like you will
> > be much more motivated, thus more successful, in finding
> > counterarguments than I ever would.
>
> Not really. I rarely do more than glance at your posts
> before discarding them as more of the same old ... stuff.
> Occasionally something catches my eye, sometimes even when I
> have the time, interest, and knowledge to make some kind of
> response, and then I may amuse myself for a bit, but I
> certainly don't take it very seriously.

I don't think you can hold your own lethargy and inaction against me.


> >>> 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,
>
> >> No, *you* are.
>
> > Yes, and you are not. So?
>
> Occasionally he can be quite sensible, but you're struck by
> the effectiveness of Torsten's blinkers where his idées
> fixes are concerned.

Erh what? Was there something important I should have concluded from
your not finding some of McBain's derivations tortuous? What have my
blinkers prevented me from seeing? Please enlighten me.


> >>> both the semantic and the morphological ones ('formed from',
> >>> indeed),
>
> >> Your incredulity is misplaced. 'Formed from X' appears
> >> to be MacBain's abbreviation for 'adapted from X to
> >> Irish/Gaelic phonology', or at least to include that
> >> sense.
>
> > And in the rest of the cases you apparently don't know
> > know what to make of it either, but you'd rather die than
> > admit it.
>
> In fact the phrase 'formed from' appears exactly three times
> in the material in question. Twice it was used in
> unqualified assertions, and I addressed both of those. I
> did not bother with 'peilisteir -- a quoit, flat stone;
> formed from the stem peileir?', since MacBain was clearly
> just offering a conjecture.
>
> >> An example is the entry for <pàisd> 'a child':
>
> >> Irish páisde; formed from Middle English páge, boy,
> >> Scottish page, boy, now English page.
>
> >> In fact Middle English or Anglo-Norman <page>, /pa:dZ&/
> >> or the like, was borrowed into Irish as <páitse>,
> >> representing something like /pa:t^s^&/. Modern <páiste>
> >> 'a child' and Sc.Gael. <pàisde> ~ <pàiste> have
> >> metathesized the cluster.
>
> > Feilberg: Ordbog over det jyske Almuesmaal (1894 - 1904):
> > pajs "small child"
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/30336
> > How do you explain that?
>
> Lacking any information on how far back it goes,

It goes it least back to McBain's time, so that shouldn't stop you.

> and knowing rather less about Danish (let alone specifically
> Jutlandic) historical phonology than I do about any of the other
> NGmc. varieties, I'm obviously in no position to do so. I would
> look first at the possibility of a French source.

You do know the story of the man who looked for his door key under the
lamppost rather than where he lost it, because the light was better
there? With that attitude I don't think you should accuse me of
ignorance. At least I'm trying. You're not.


> > Loan into Jysk from English or Gaelic or French? Loan from
> > Jysk into English and Gaelic and French? AFAIK the French
> > 'page' doesn't have a proper derivation from Latin either.
> > And don't forget, it's a word in p-, so 'pajs' can't be a
> > Germanic word.
>
> I couldn't care less. The *only* issue that I'm addressing
> is your use of Gaelic words. This includes your notion that
> 'the equally frequent explanations from English are no
> really an explanation either since "true" Germanic words
> can't have p- either': a word that can be traced back to
> English or ON may be relevant to your substrate concerns,
> but its presence in Gaelic isn't, and you should be looking
> at the English or ON word instead.

Of course it is since there is a logical possibility that that
substrate in English and Germanic in general was instead a substrate
language of much of NWEurope.


> >> Derivation of EIr <páb(h)áil> 'pavement' (whence <páil>)
> >> and <páb(h)álta> 'paved' from English <pave> isn't quite
> >> so clearcut, but it is in fact quite plausible, and if
> >> you don't know why, you're not in a position to be
> >> skeptical.
>
> > Hahaha. You made my day.
> > You don't know how, so I'm not in a position to be
> > skeptical?
>
> Read it again. I *do* know how; I merely recognize that it
> isn't quite so straightforward and therefore is less
> certain. And no, I'm not going to tell you. If you want to
> play with Irish and Gaelic, you can damn' well learn
> something about them.

Once again: what is it you know about Gaelic which I should know and
which renders my line of reasoning invalid? Do you want to tell me or
not? You sound more and more like Chris.

> > Try this one in stead:
> > http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/KuhnText/07pauw-treten.html
>
> Why? It's completely irrelevant to the Gaelic words.

Circular. Note the Breton 'Pafalek ou Pavalek'. There's your missing
'l'. How did it end up there?


Torsten