Difference between revisions of "User:Erisceres/McCone's Relative Chronology"
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A summary of Goidelic developments chapter by chapter of Kim McCone's ''Towards a relative chronology of ancient and medieval Celtic sound change'' (1996). | |||
= Chapter One: The Phonology and Orthography of the Attested Celtic Languages = | = Chapter One: The Phonology and Orthography of the Attested Celtic Languages = | ||
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* Their assignment seems to have been a Latin-based cosmetic choice with their name initials being a contributing factor. | * Their assignment seems to have been a Latin-based cosmetic choice with their name initials being a contributing factor. | ||
* Their true values may have been {{IPA|/j/}}, {{IPA|/ɡʷ/}} and {{IPA|/sᵗ/}} respectively, or something similar, but this cannot be directly tested due to their lack of attestation on available inscriptions. | * Their true values may have been {{IPA|/j/}}, {{IPA|/ɡʷ/}} and {{IPA|/sᵗ/}} respectively, or something similar, but this cannot be directly tested due to their lack of attestation on available inscriptions. | ||
=== I.5.2 === | |||
== I.6 Old Irish == | |||
=== I.6.1 === | |||
=== I.6.2 === | |||
=== I.6.3 === | |||
=== I.6.4 === | |||
=== I.6.5 === | |||
=== I.6.6 === | |||
=== I.6.7 === | |||
=== I.6.8 === | |||
= Chapter Two: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic = | |||
== II.1 Stops == | |||
=== II.1.1 === | |||
=== II.1.2 === | |||
=== II.1.3 === | |||
=== II.1.4 === | |||
=== II.1.5 === | |||
== II.2 Fricatives == | |||
=== II.2.1 === | |||
=== II.2.2 === | |||
=== II.2.3 === | |||
== II.3 Sonants == | |||
=== II.3.1 === | |||
=== II.3.2 === | |||
=== II.3.3 === | |||
== II.4 Laryngeals == | |||
=== II.4.1 === | |||
=== II.4.2 === | |||
=== II.4.3 === | |||
=== II.4.4 === | |||
== II.5 Vowels == | |||
=== II.5.1 === | |||
=== II.5.2 === | |||
=== II.5.3 === | |||
=== II.5.4 === | |||
=== II.5.5 === | |||
=== II.5.6 === | |||
=== II.5.7 === | |||
= Chapter Three: The Voiceless Labiovelar, Syllabic Nasals, Lenition and the Celtic Family Tree = | |||
== III.1 The Voiceless Labiovelar == | |||
=== III.1.1 === | |||
=== III.1.2 === | |||
=== III.1.3 === | |||
=== III.1.4 === | |||
== III.2 Syllabic Nasals == | |||
=== III.2.1 === | |||
=== III.2.2 === | |||
=== III.2.3 === | |||
=== III.2.4 === | |||
=== III.2.5 === | |||
=== III.2.6 === | |||
=== III.2.7 === | |||
== III.3 The Gallo-British Hypothesis == | |||
=== III.3.1 === | |||
=== III.3.2 === | |||
== III.4 Lenition == | |||
=== III.4.1 === | |||
=== III.4.2 === | |||
=== III.4.3 === | |||
=== III.4.4 === | |||
=== III.4.5 === | |||
=== III.4.6 === | |||
== III.5 Evidence for Insular Celtic == | |||
=== III.5.1 === | |||
=== III.5.2 === | |||
=== III.5.3 === | |||
=== III.5.4 === | |||
=== III.5.5 === | |||
=== III.5.6 === | |||
=== III.5.7 === | |||
=== III.5.8 === | |||
= Chapter Four: Primitive Irish = | |||
== IV.1 Early Developments == | |||
=== IV.1.1 === | |||
=== IV.1.2 === | |||
=== IV.1.3 === | |||
=== IV.1.4 === | |||
=== IV.1.5 === | |||
== IV.2 Umlaut and Other Changes in Vocalism == | |||
=== IV.2.1 === | |||
=== IV.2.2 === | |||
=== IV.2.3 === | |||
=== IV.2.4 === | |||
=== IV.2.5 === | |||
=== IV.2.6 === | |||
== IV.3 Palatalisation == | |||
=== IV.3.1 === | |||
=== IV.3.2 === | |||
=== IV.3.3 === | |||
=== IV.3.4 === | |||
=== IV.3.5 === | |||
== IV.4 Loss of Final Consonants and Vowels == | |||
=== IV.4.1 === | |||
=== IV.4.2 === | |||
=== IV.4.3 === | |||
== IV.5 Compensatory Lengthening and Syncope == | |||
=== IV.5.1 === | |||
=== IV.5.2 === | |||
=== IV.5.3 === | |||
= Chapter Five: From Early Old Irish to Middle Irish = | |||
== V.1 Consonant Groups Arising by Syncope == | |||
=== V.1.1 === | |||
=== V.1.2 === | |||
=== V.1.3 === | |||
=== V.1.4 === | |||
=== V.1.5 === | |||
=== V.1.6 === | |||
== V.2 Semivowels and Diphthongs == | |||
=== V.2.1 === | |||
=== V.2.2 === | |||
=== V.2.3 === | |||
=== V.2.4 === | |||
== V.3 Voicing of Consonants == | |||
=== V.3.1 === | |||
=== V.3.2 === | |||
=== V.3.3 === | |||
=== V.3.4 === | |||
=== V.3.5 === | |||
== V.4 Breaking, Proclisis and Unstressed Vowels == | |||
=== V.4.1 === | |||
=== V.4.2 === | |||
=== V.4.3 === | |||
=== V.4.4 === | |||
== V.5 Changes in the Old Irish Phonemic System == | |||
=== V.5.1 === | |||
=== V.5.2 === | |||
=== V.5.3 === | |||
=== V.5.4 === | |||
=== V.5.5 === | |||
=== V.5.6 === | |||
== V.6 Middle Irish Developments == | |||
=== V.6.1 === | |||
=== V.6.2 === | |||
=== V.6.3 === | |||
=== V.6.4 === |
Revision as of 23:59, 4 October 2022
A summary of Goidelic developments chapter by chapter of Kim McCone's Towards a relative chronology of ancient and medieval Celtic sound change (1996).
Chapter One: The Phonology and Orthography of the Attested Celtic Languages
I.1 Introduction
- Irish Ogam inscriptions date to the 5th and 6th c. C.E.
- The Irish manuscript record emerged in the 7th c. C.E.
- Church literacy provided the model for vernacular writing.
- Ogam is almost certainly based on the Roman alphabet.
- Manuscript orthography from the 5th to 12th c. C.E. was based on British Latin pronunciation.
- After the 12th c. C.E., the orthography underwent experimental changes.
I.5 Ogam Irish
I.5.1
- The earliest attested method of writing Irish is Ogam.
- It is written on a line formed by the edge of a stone.
- It consists of:
- one to five notches (a, o, u, e, i);
- one to five horizontal strokes to the right (b, l, f, s, n);
- one to five horizontal strokes to the left (h, d, t, c, q);
- one to five diagonal strokes across (m, g, ng, z, r).
- It is almost certainly based on the Roman alphabet.
- Its twenty signs in four groups of five obviously had a numeric basis.
- It was probably devised in the 4th c. C.E.
- There was probably already an established Christian community in the south of Ireland at the time.
- The Latin-based literacy of Christianity possibly influenced its creation.
- Irish colonies were being established in Wales in the 4th c. C.E., providing another possible link to the learning of Latin.
- Archaeological evidence shows a material link between Ireland and Roman-based communities at the time.
- Cultural contact between these communities would have helped provide the environment and influence for its creation.
- The alphabetic characters substituted for the Ogam symbols were assigned during the much later manuscript tradition.
- The omission of Latin p, and phonetic pairings of d/t and c/q, show innovation with a practical focus on Primitive Irish phonology.
- These innovations help show the phonemic structure of Irish of the 4th c. C.E.
- The later substitution of alphabetic characters shows deviation from the original phonemic values.
- Bilingual inscriptions from Wales show the transcription of v instead of the substituted f assigned during the manuscript tradition, considering /f/ was unlikely to have arisen from /w/ during the 4th c. C.E (V.2.2).
- The later reanalysis was probably due to the historical change found in the initial sound of the name of the letter:
- fern “alder” < *wernā.
- The manuscript tradition did seem to recognise a written distinction between c and q even though the latter was lost in speech by the 6th c. C.E. (IV.3.4).
- There was an obvious phonetic connection between the initials of the names for the letters but a lack of phonemic distinction between velar and labiovelar counterparts:
- coll “hazel” (< *kollo- < *koslo-) for c;
- cert “apple-tree” (< *kʷerto- < *kʷerxto- < *kʷerkʷ-to- < *perkʷ-; II.1.5b) for q.
- Since the 6th c. C.E. merger of /kʷ/ with /k/, a second letter was needed for this written distinction and q was coincidentally chosen for historical /kʷ/.
- Like f, the signs h, ng and z seem unlikely to have been devised to represent the sounds ascribed to them in the manuscript tradition as /h/, /ŋ/ and /z/ were hardly distinct phonemes in 4th or 5th c. C.E. Irish.
- Their assignment seems to have been a Latin-based cosmetic choice with their name initials being a contributing factor.
- Their true values may have been /j/, /ɡʷ/ and /sᵗ/ respectively, or something similar, but this cannot be directly tested due to their lack of attestation on available inscriptions.