P-Celtic languages

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As p-Celtic languages all Celtic languages referred to in which the Indo-European labiovelar / k w / the labial was / p / simplified:

The island celtic

The British branch of Island Celtic are the still living languages Welsh and Breton . The latter, however, is spoken on the mainland in Brittany and was brought there by immigrant or fleeing Celts from Cornwall. Cornish has been extinct since the 18th century but has been revived to a very minor extent. The Cumbrian is also extinct.

The mainland Celtic

Three of the five recorded mainland Celtic languages clearly belong to p-Celtic. Lepontic , the oldest Celtic language from the 6th century, Noric and Galatian . The Gallic is counted also to p-Celtic, although remnants of the earlier phoneme / k w demonstrates / z. B. in the river name Sequana (French Seine): The Celtiberian is a mainland Celtic language, but belongs to the q-Celtic .

State of research

However, it is controversial in research to what extent the division of the Celtic languages into p-Celtic and q-Celtic languages really makes sense. On the one hand, the phonological difference between / k w / or / q / and / p / is small, on the other hand, in this way the Goidelic languages and Celtiberian would end up in the narrow group of q-Celtic languages . However, these languages ​​are very different from each other. The P-Celtic languages ​​are more homogeneous compared to each other. Other criteria, such as geographical distribution or the tendency towards initial mutations , may therefore be more suitable for a basic classification of the Celtic languages.

literature

  • Kenneth H. Jackson: Language and History in Early Britain: A Chronological Survey of the Brittonic Languages, 1st to 12th Century AD . Edinburgh University Press 1953. Ndr. Four Courts Press 1993, ISBN 1-85182-140-6 .
  • Martin J. Ball, James Fife (Eds.): The Celtic Languages. (Routledge Language Family Descriptions). Routledge, London and New York 1993, ISBN 0-415-28080-X .
  • Paul Russell: An Introduction to the Celtic Languages. (Longman Linguistics Library). Longman, London and New York 1995, ISBN 0-582-10082-8 .