From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 59932
Date: 2008-09-04
----- Original Message -----
From: Rick McCallister
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Breton - Slovenian correspondences
Is there anything at all in Breton that is not cognate with Cornish and
French? I seen the rumors of a Gaulish substrate, but is there any validity
or could it even be proven?
=============
Things that are not Celtic or French in Breton are Latin.
Very often, Breton is closer to Latin meanings than French !
Like meren 'meal'.
Cf. place-names in Breton : pagus, locus, -ec < -acus, etc. 100% latin.
Personally, I don't believe Gaulish survived in Bretagne,
For example, the island of Ushant Ouessant < *oksisama is obviously stressed
the Latin way not the Gaulish way.
Even in the remotest place of Bretagne, people spoke Latin.
So far, I've never heard about a word of Breton that could be traced to
Gaulish.
I don't believe the Vannetais dialect has a Gaulish substrate, its oddities
are more probably caused by an early contamination by middle French.
Arnaud