Re: Rromei-Geldyghei lyngvei (Roman-Celtic langs)

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@POLARIS.UMUC.EDU>]

die solis Andreas Faber (Andrew Smith) scripsit:

> On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> > Brithenig and Kernu have Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative, Conditional
> > and Infinitive for moods.  Kernu is a bit more conservative (and a bit
> > more Celtic) with its verbal terminations, as you could see above.  Kernu
> > retains the -b- future of the 1st conjugation, the -s- perfect from
> > several places, the -b- imperfect (though mutated to -v-), a few
> > reduplicative verbs and a few -r passives.
> >
> There is also the past definitive which survives in Brithenig, but I'm not
> quite sure if this is a mood or a tense - I'm not certain of the
> distinction.

Do you mean the perfect (as opposed to imperfect)? -- ys chantaren vs. ys
chantafan.  I think perfect/imperfect are somewhat of a blur between tense
and aspect.  Both are tenses, but the aspect is different.  In the former,
the aspect is Perfective (the action is done); while in the latter, the
aspect is Imperfective (the action is incompleat, continuous).

> > >
> > > Breton has "inflecting prepositions".  Do Brithenig and Kemru?  I'm still
> > > figuring those out, whether to include it or not; I'm leaning towards the
> > > 'not'.
> >
> Brithenig has only one set of inflecting prepositions, which it inherited
> from latin.  Mecum, tecum etc., survive in Brithenig as meg, teg, etc.
> Some speakers prefix cun- to the pronoun (cunmeg, cunneg, etc.), same as
> in Italian and Spanish, but this has not universal.
>
> One look at the Celtic prepositions was enough, I fled screaming.
> Sometimes I hear them at night, scratching inside the walls.

One of these days they _will_ get through!!!

>
> >
> > > Last for now:  Any idiomatic dictionaries for Celtic langs that could be
> > > of use?
> >
> The Celtic languages are naturally idiomatic, and charming with it.  I
> would love to have something that gave me etymology but I haven't found
> one yet.  The University of Otago Library has a multivolume Robert French
> Dictionary with etymology for French, which, as far as I'm concerned, must
> have been donated by God!

I have found Malcolm MacLennan's "Gaelic Dictionary" somewhat helpful for
etymology.  I'd say about 30 to 40% of the words I've looked up give an
Old Celtic form which I can then check out in Dottin's "Langue Gauloise".
Not a perfect system, perhaps, but sufficient for the desired substrate of
Celtic in Kernu.

>
> I have a copy of the Collins Spurrell Pocket Welsh Dictionary which does
> well in a pinch, but if I want to get serious I have to go hunting.
>
> - andrew.
>
> Andrew Smith                                  <hobbit@earthlight.co.nz>
>
> MAN, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many
> accomplishments; still owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil
> and the fact that it rains.
>                                                            - Anonymous
>
Padraic.