Re: nu alltr e gw alltr?

["Raymond A. Brown" <raybrown@clara.co.uk>]

At 5:19 pm +1300 16/11/98, Andrew Smith wrote:
>On Sun, 15 Nov 1998, Raymond A. Brown wrote:
......
>> Otherwise if 'a cas' is retained then Brithenig should follow its sister
>> tongues and reinstate 'catr' and, of course, rename itself 'Britenig' ;)
>>
>I realised a long time ago that Comroig would be a better name for
>Brithenig, and it was too late then to change it.

'Brithenig' is OK - after all, the modern Bretons are still happy to
perpetuate the name under the form 'Brezhoneg' (where 'zh' is cunningly
pronounced /z/ or /h/ according to dialect and derives from earlier [T]   :)

[sni]
>>
>> But I recall that Italian has other prepositions which cause initial
>> consonant gemination.  Are there, therefore, other Brithenig prepositions
>> which should cause spirant mutation?
>>
>More research! Punishment for my sins!

Sorry   ;)


[...]
>>
>I looked up my old copy of Teach Yourself Italian and found Italian uses
>di + the definite article; or alcuno/a/i/e; or qualche.  So it's only the
>Iberian languages that use unos/unas.

That's true - though over the east the Romanians make a half-hearted
attempt to use a plural of 'one'.  It's always a possibility & might be
looked upon as surviving in the 'fringe' languages of the Romance area, if
it is retained in Brithenig.  Personally, I've always felt the development
of a fully fledged partitive article in the French manner was more likely;
I've not pushed this so as not to rock the boat, so to speak, and also
partly, I suspect, through plain laziness.  But it looks as tho the time
might be ripe for considering this :)

>>I'll do some research on Breton and then we might have to brainstorm this
>>one out.

Although Breton has developed an indefinite article, it is used only before
singular nouns.  Breton has not developed anything comparable to the French
partitive, and indefinite plurals are simply unmarked.  But then Breton has
retained distinctive plurals for its nouns with all the bewildering variety
we find with Welsh plurals.

>>
>> Not 'nunu' - it's the name of an animated vaccum cleaner on a popular
>> children's TV series here  ;)
>>
>That wouldn't be the slightly psychodelic teletubbies would it?  I have
>seen them only once, and, what's worse, I was sober at the time!

'Twould be.  They're quite charming, but one must remember they are aimed
at two to three year olds!

Ray.

PS - having stirred the pot, so to speak, with the mentioning that some
other Italian preps. cause gemination & with discussion of partitive forms,
I think I ought to do some research also  ;)  I'll download the latest
version of the Brithenig grammar some time to day (I think my hard copy is
a little out of date) and take it from there - but don't expect immediate
results.