Proto-Celtic language

Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celtic is generally thought to have been spoken between 1300 and 800 BC, after which it began to split into different languages. Proto-Celtic is often associated with the Urnfield culture and particularly with the Hallstatt culture. Celtic languages share common features with Italic languages that are not found in other branches of Indo-European, suggesting the possibility of an earlier Italo-Celtic linguistic unity.

Proto-Celtic
PC, Common Celtic
Reconstruction of	Celtic languages
Region	Central or Western Europe
Era	ca. 1300–800 BC
Reconstructed ancestor	Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Celtic is currently being reconstructed through the comparative method by relying on later Celtic languages. Though Continental Celtic presents much substantiation for Proto-Celtic phonology, and some for its morphology, recorded material is too scanty to allow a secure reconstruction of syntax, though some complete sentences are recorded in the Continental Gaulish and Celtiberian. So the main sources for reconstruction come from Insular Celtic languages with the oldest literature found in Old Irish^[1] and Middle Welsh,^[2] dating back to authors flourishing in the 6th century AD.

Dating

Proto-Celtic is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1200–900 BC.^[3] The fact that it is possible to reconstruct a Proto-Celtic word for 'iron' (traditionally reconstructed as *īsarnom) has long been taken as an indication that the divergence into individual Celtic languages did not start until the Iron Age (8th century BCE to 1st century BCE); otherwise, descendant languages would have developed their own, unrelated words for their metal. However, Schumacher^[4] and Schrijver^[5] suggest a date for Proto-Celtic as early as the 13th century BC, the time of the Canegrate culture, in northwest Italy, and the Urnfield culture in Central Europe, implying that the divergence may have already started in the Bronze Age.^[why?]

Sound changes from Proto-Indo-European

The phonological changes from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to Proto-Celtic (PC) may be summarized as follows.^[6] The changes are roughly in chronological order, with changes that operate on the outcome of earlier ones appearing later in the list.

Late PIE

These changes are shared by several other Indo-European branches.

• *e is colored by an adjacent laryngeal consonant:
  • eh₂, h₂e > ah₂, h₂a
  • eh₃, h₃e > oh₃, h₃o
• Palatovelars merge into the plain velars:
  • ḱ > k
  • ǵ > g
  • ǵʰ > gʰ
• Epenthetic *a is inserted after a syllabic sonorant if a laryngeal and another sonorant follow (R̥HR > RaHR)
• Laryngeals are lost:
  • before a following vowel (HV > V)
  • following a vowel in syllables before the accent (VHC´ > VC´)
  • following a vowel, resulting in compensatory lengthening, thus (VH > V̄)
  • between plosives in non-initial syllables (CHC > CC)
• Two adjacent dentals become two adjacent sibilants (TT > ss)

Italo-Celtic

The following sound changes are shared with the Italic languages in particular, and are cited in support of the Italo-Celtic hypothesis.^[7]

• Dybo's rule: long close vowels are shortened (or a laryngeal is lost) before resonant + stressed vowel.
  • īR´ / ? *iHR´ > iR´
  • ūR´ / ? *uHR´ > uR´
• Possibly, post-consonantal laryngeals are lost when before pre-tonic close vowels:
  • CHiC´ > CiC´
  • CHuC´ > CuC´
• Development of initial stress, following the previous two changes.
• Possibly, vocalization of laryngeals to *ī between a *CR cluster and consonantal *j (CRHjV > CRījV)
• Syllabic laryngeals become *a (CHC > CaC)
• Syllabic resonants before a voiced unaspirated stop become *Ra (R̥D > RaD)
• *m is assimilated or lost before a glide:
  • mj > nj
  • mw > w
• *p assimilates to *kʷ when another *kʷ follows later in the word (p…kʷ > kʷ…kʷ)
• sVs > ss, sTVs > Ts

One change shows non-exact parallels in Italic: vocalization of syllabic resonants next to laryngeals depending on the environment. Similar developments appear in Italic, but for the syllabic nasals *m̥, *n̥, the result is Proto-Italic *əm, *ən (> Latin em ~ im, en ~ in).

• Word-initially, HR̥C > aRC
• Before voiceless stops, CR̥HT > CRaT
• CR̥HV > CaRHV
• CR̥HC > CRāC

Early PC

• Sequences of velar and *w merge into the labiovelars (it is uncertain if this preceded or followed the next change; that is, whether gw > b or gw > gʷ, but Schumacher 2004 argues on p. 372 that this change came first; moreover, it is also found in Proto-Italic, and thus arguably belongs to the previous section):
  • kw > kʷ
  • gw > gʷ
  • gʰw > gʷʰ
• gʷ > b
• Aspirated stops lose their aspiration and merge with the voiced stops (except that this counterfeeds the previous change, so *gʷʰ > *gʷ doesn't result in a merger):
  • bʰ > b
  • dʰ > d
  • gʰ > g
  • gʷʰ > gʷ
• *e before a resonant and *a (but not *ā) becomes *a as well (eRa > aRa): *ǵʰelH-ro > *gelaro > *galaro / *gérH-no > *gerano > *garano (Joseph's rule).
• Epenthetic *i is inserted after syllabic liquids when followed by a plosive:
  • l̥T > liT
  • r̥T > riT
• Epenthetic *a is inserted before the remaining syllabic resonants:
  • m̥ > am
  • n̥ > an
  • l̥ > al
  • r̥ > ar
• All remaining nonsyllabic laryngeals are lost.
• ē > ī
• ō > ū in final syllables
• Long vowels are shortened before a syllable-final resonant (V:RC > VRC); this also shortens long diphthongs. (Osthoff's law)

Late PC

• Plosives become *x before a different plosive or *s (C₁C₂ > xC₂, Cs > xs)
• p > b before liquids (pL > bL)
• p > w before nasals (pN > wN)
• p > ɸ (except possibly after *s)
• ō > ā
• ey > ē
• ew > ow
• uwa > owa

Examples

PIE	PC	Example
		PIE	Proto-Celtic		Old Irish		Welsh
*p	*ɸ	*ph₂tḗr	*ɸatīr	father	athir		edrydd	cf. home (< *ɸatrijo-)
*t	*t	*tréyes	*trīs	three	trí		tri
*k, ḱ	*k	*kh₂n̥-e- *ḱm̥tom	*kan-o- *kantom	sing hundred	canaid cét /kʲeːd/		canu cant
*kʷ	*kʷ	*kʷetwr̥es	*kʷetwares	four	ceth(a)ir		pedwar
*b	*b	*h₂ébōl	*abalom	apple	uball		afal
*d	*d	*derḱ-	*derk-	see	derc	eye	drych	sight
*g, ǵ	*g	*gleh₁i- *ǵen-u-	*gli-na- *genu-	to glue jaw	glen(a)id giun, gin	(he) sticks fast mouth	glynu gên	adhere jaw
*gʷ	*b	*gʷenh₂	*bena	woman	ben		O.W. ben
*bʰ	*b	*bʰére-	*ber-o-	carry	berid	(he) carries	adfer cymeryd^[8]	to restore to take
*dʰ	*d	*dʰeh₁i-	*di-na-	suck	denait	they suck	dynu, denu
*gʰ, ǵʰ	*g	*gʰh₁bʰ-(e)y- *ǵʰelH-ro-	*gab-i- *galaro-	take sickness	ga(i)bid galar	(he) takes sickness	gafael galar	hold grief
*gʷʰ	*gʷ	*gʷʰn̥-	*gʷan-o-	kill, wound	gonaid	(he) wounds, slays	gwanu	stab
*s	*s	*sen-o-	*senos	old	sen		hen
*m	*m	*méh₂tēr	*mātīr	mother	máthir		modryb	cf. aunt
*n	*n	*h₂nép-ōt-	*neɸūts	nephew	niad		nai
*l	*l	*leyǵʰ-	*lig-e/o-	lick	ligid	(he) licks	llyo, llyfu
*r	*r	*h₃rēǵ-s	*rīgs	king	rí (gen. ríg)		rhi
*j	*j	*h₂yuh₁n-ḱós	*juwankos	young	óac		ieuanc
*w	*w	*h₂wl̥h₁tí-	*wlatis	rulership	flaith		gwlad	country

PIE		PC	Example
			PIE	PC		Old Irish		Welsh
*a, *h₂e		*a	*h₂ep-h₃ōn-	*abū acc. *abonen	river	aub		afon
*ā, *eh₂		*ā	*bʰréh₂tēr	*brātīr	brother	bráthir		brawd
*e, h₁e		*e	*sen-o-	*senos	old	sen		hen
*H	between consonants^[9]	*a	*ph₂tḗr	*ɸatīr	father	athir		edrydd	cf. home
*ē, eh₁		*ī	*weh₁-ro-	*wīros	true	fír		gwir
*o, Ho, h₃e		*o	*Hroth₂o-	*rotos	wheel	roth		rhod
*ō, eh₃	in final syllable	*ū	*h₂nép-ōt-	*neɸūts	nephew	niæ		nai
	elsewhere	*ā	*deh₃no-	*dāno-	gift	dán		dawn
*i		*i	*gʷih₃-tu-	*bitus	world	bith		byd
*ī, iH		*ī	*rīmeh₂	*rīmā	number	rím		rhif
*ai, h₂ei, eh₂i		*ai	*kaikos *seh₂itlo-	*kaikos *saitlo-	blind age	cáech —	one-eyed —	coeg hoedl	empty, one-eyed age
*(h₁)ei, ēi, eh₁i		*ei	*deywos	*deiwos	god	día		duw
*oi, ōi, h₃ei, eh₃i		*oi	*oynos	*oinos	one	óen oín; áen aín		un
*u	before wa	o	*h₂yuh₁n-ḱós	*juwankos > *jowankos	young	óac		ieuanc
	elsewhere	*u	*srutos	*srutos	stream	sruth		ffrwd
*ū, uH		*ū	*ruHneh₂	*rūnā	mystery	rún		rhin
*au, h₂eu, eh₂u		*au	*tausos	*tausos	silent	táue	silence (*tausijā)	taw
*(h₁)eu, ēu, eh₁u; *ou, ōu, h₃eu, eh₃u		*ou	*tewteh₂ *gʷeh₃-u-s	*toutā *bows	people cow	túath bó		tud M.W. bu, biw
*l̥	before stops	*li	*pl̥th₂nós	*ɸlitanos	wide	lethan		llydan
	before other consonants	*al	*kl̥h₁-	*kaljākos	rooster	cailech (Ogham gen. caliaci)		ceiliog
*r̥	before stops	*ri	*bʰr̥ti-	*briti-	act of bearing; mind	breth, brith		bryd
	before other consonants	*ar	*mr̥wos	*marwos	dead	marb		marw
*m̥		*am	*dm̥-nh₂-	*damna-	subdue	M.Ir. damnaid	he ties, fastens, binds	—
*n̥		*an	*h₃dn̥t-	*danton	tooth	dét /dʲeːd/		dant
*l̥H	before obstruents	*la	*h₂wlh₁tí-	*wlatis	lordship	flaith		gwlad	country
	before sonorants	*lā	*pl̥Hmeh₂	*ɸlāmā	hand	lám		llaw
*r̥H	before obstruents	*ra	*mr̥Htom	*mratom	betrayal	mrath		brad
	before sonorants	*rā	*ǵr̥Hnom	*grānom	grain	grán		grawn
*m̥H	(presumably with same distribution as above)	*am/mā	*dm̥h₂-ye/o-	*damje/o-	to tame	daimid fodam-	daimid -	goddef	endure, suffer
*n̥H		*an/nā	*ǵn̥h₃to- ?	*gnātos	known	gnáth		gnawd	customary

Phonological reconstruction

Consonants

The following consonants have been reconstructed for Proto-Celtic (PC):

Manner	Voicing	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
					plain	labialized
Plosive	voiceless		t		k	kʷ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡʷ
Fricative		ɸ	s		x
Nasal		m	n
Approximant			l	j		w
Trill			r

Allophones of plosives

PC stops allophonically manifest similarly to those in English. Voiceless stop phonemes /t k/ were aspirated word-initially except when preceded by /s/, hence aspirate allophones [tʰ kʰ]. And unaspirated voiced stops /b d ɡ/ were devoiced to [p t k] word-initially.^[10][11]

This allophony may be reconstructed to PC from the following evidence:^[10][11]

• Modern Celtic languages like Welsh, Breton, and all modern Goidelic languages have such plosive aspiration and voice allophony already attested.
• Several old Celtic languages (such as Old Irish, Old Welsh, and Lepontic) used letters for voiceless stop phonemes to write both voiceless stop phonemes and their voiced counterparts, especially non-word-initially.
• The Celtiberian Luzaga's Bronze has the curious spelling of an accusative determiner sdam, where the d is clearly meant to spell [t]. This implies that Celtiberian /d/ had a voiceless allophone [t].

Evolution of plosives

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) voiced aspirate stops *bʰ, *dʰ, *gʰ/ǵʰ, merge with *b, *d, *g/ǵ in PC. The voiced aspirate labiovelar *gʷʰ did not merge with *gʷ, though: plain *gʷ became PC *b, while aspirated *gʷʰ became *gʷ. Thus, PIE *gʷen- 'woman' became Old Irish and Old Welsh ben, but PIE *gʷʰn̥- 'to kill, wound' became Old Irish gonaid and Welsh gwanu.

PIE *p is lost in PC, apparently going through the stages *ɸ (possibly a stage *[pʰ])^[10] and *h (perhaps seen in the name Hercynia if this is of Celtic origin) before being completely lost word-initially and between vowels. Next to consonants, PC *ɸ underwent different changes: the clusters *ɸs and *ɸt became *xs and *xt respectively already in PC. PIE *sp- became Old Irish s (lenited f-, exactly as for PIE *sw-) and Brythonic f; while Schrijver 1995, p. 348 argues there was an intermediate stage *sɸ- (in which *ɸ remained an independent phoneme until after Proto-Insular Celtic had diverged into Goidelic and Brythonic), McCone 1996, pp. 44–45 finds it more economical to believe that *sp- remained unchanged in PC, that is, the change *p to *ɸ did not happen when *s preceded. (Similarly, Grimm's law did not apply to *p, t, k after *s in Germanic, and the same exception occurred again in the High German consonant shift.)

Proto-Celtic	Old Irish	Welsh
*laɸs- > *laxs- 'shine'	las-aid	llach-ar
*seɸtam > *sextam 'seven'	secht	saith
*sɸeret- or *speret- 'heel'	seir	ffêr

In Gaulish and the Brittonic languages, the Proto-Indo-European *kʷ phoneme becomes a new *p sound. Thus, Gaulish petuar[ios], Welsh pedwar "four", but Old Irish cethair and Latin quattuor. Insofar as this new /p/ fills the gap in the phoneme inventory which was left by the disappearance of the equivalent stop in PIE, we may think of this as a chain shift.

The terms P-Celtic and Q-Celtic are useful for grouping Celtic languages based on the way they handle this one phoneme. But a simple division into P- / Q-Celtic may be untenable, as it does not do justice to the evidence of the ancient Continental Celtic languages. The many unusual shared innovations among the Insular Celtic languages are often also presented as evidence against a P- vs Q-Celtic division, but they may instead reflect a common substratum influence from the pre-Celtic languages of Britain and Ireland,[1], or simply continuing contact between the insular languages; in either case they would be irrelevant to the genetic classification of Celtic languages.

Q-Celtic languages may also have /p/ in loan words, though in early borrowings from Welsh into Primitive Irish, /kʷ/ was used by sound substitution due to a lack of a /p/ phoneme at the time:

• Latin Patricius "Saint Patrick"' > Welsh > Primitive Irish Qatrikias > Old Irish Cothrige, later Pádraig;
• Latin presbyter "priest" > early form of word seen in Old Welsh premter primter > Primitive Irish qrimitir > Old Irish cruimther.

Gaelic póg "kiss" was a later borrowing (from the second word of the Latin phrase osculum pacis "kiss of peace") at a stage where p was borrowed directly as p, without substituting c.

Vowels

The PC vowel system is highly comparable to that reconstructed for PIE by Antoine Meillet. The following monophthongs are reconstructed:

Type	Front		Central		Back
	long	short	long	short	long	short
Close	iː	i			uː	u
Mid	eː	e				o
Open			aː	a

The following diphthongs have also been reconstructed:

Type	With -i	With -u
With a-	ai	au
With o-	oi	ou

Morphology

Nouns

The morphological (structure) of nouns and adjectives demonstrates no arresting alterations from the parent language. Proto-Celtic is believed to have had nouns in three genders, three numbers and five to eight cases. The genders were masculine, feminine and neuter; the numbers were singular, plural and dual. The number of cases is a subject of contention:^[12] while Old Irish may have only five, the evidence from Continental Celtic is considered^{[by whom?]} rather unambiguous despite appeals to archaic retentions or morphological leveling. These cases were nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, locative and instrumental.

Nouns fall into nine or so declensions, depending on stem. There are *o-stems, *ā-stems, *i-stems, *u-stems, dental stems, velar stems, nasal stems, *r-stems and *s-stems.

*o-stem nouns

• makkʷos 'son' (masculine) (Old Irish mac ~ Welsh, Cornish and Breton mab)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*makkʷos	*makkʷou	*makkʷoi
Vocative	*makkʷe	*makkʷou	*makkʷūs
Accusative	*makkʷom	*makkʷou	*makkʷūs
Genitive	*makkʷī	*makkʷūs	*makkʷom
Dative	*makkʷūi	*makkʷobom	*makkʷobos
Ablative	*makkʷū	*makkʷobim	*makkʷobis
Instrumental	*makkʷū	*makkʷobim	*makkʷūs
Locative	*makkʷei	*makkʷou	*makkʷobis

• dūnom 'stronghold' (neuter)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*dūnom	*dūnou	*dūnā
Vocative	*dūnom	*dūnou	*dūnā
Accusative	*dūnom	*dūnou	*dūnā
Genitive	*dūnī	*dūnūs	*dūnom
Dative	*dūnūi	*dūnobom	*dūnobos
Ablative	*dūnū	*dūnobim	*dūnobis
Instrumental	*dūnū	*dūnobim	*dūnūs
Locative	*dūnei	*dūnou	*dūnobis

*ā-stem nouns

E.g. *ɸlāmā 'hand' (feminine) (Old Irish lám; Welsh llaw, Cornish leuv, Old Breton lom)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*ɸlāmā	*ɸlāmai	*ɸlāmās
Vocative	*ɸlāmā	*ɸlāmai	*ɸlāmās
Accusative	*ɸlāmām	*ɸlāmai	*ɸlāmās
Genitive	*ɸlāmās	*ɸlāmajous	*ɸlāmom
Dative	*ɸlāmāi	*ɸlāmābom	*ɸlāmābos
Ablative	*ɸlāmī	*ɸlāmābim	*ɸlāmābis
Instrumental	*ɸlāmī	*ɸlāmābim	*ɸlāmābis
Locative	*ɸlāmāi	*ɸlāmābim	*ɸlāmābis

*i-stems

E.g. *sūlis 'sight, view, eye' (feminine) (Brittonic sulis ~ Old Irish súil)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*sūlis	*sūlī	*sūlīs
Vocative	*sūli	*sūlī	*sūlīs
Accusative	*sūlim	*sūlī	*sūlīs
Genitive	*sūleis	*sūljous	*sūljom
Dative	*sūlei	*sūlibom	*sūlibos
Ablative	*sūlī	*sūlibim	*sūlibis
Instrumental	*sūlī	*sūlibim	*sūlibis
Locative	*sūlī	*sūlibim	*sūlibis

E.g. *mori 'body of water, sea' (neuter) (Gaulish Mori- ~ Old Irish muir ~ Welsh môr)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*mori	*morī	*moryā
Vocative	*mori	*morī	*moryā
Accusative	*mori	*morī	*moryā
Genitive	*moreis	*moryous	*moryom
Dative	*morei	*moribom	*moribos
Ablative	*morī	*moribim	*moribis
Instrumental	*morī	*moribim	*moribis
Locative	*morī	*moribim	*moribis

*u-stem nouns

E.g. *bitus 'world, existence' (masculine) (Gaulish Bitu- ~ Old Irish bith ~ Welsh byd ~ Breton bed)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*bitus	*bitou	*bitowes
Vocative	*bitu	*bitou	*bitowes
Accusative	*bitum	*bitou	*bitūs
Genitive	*bitous	*bitowou	*bitowom
Dative	*bitou	*bitubom	*bitubos
Ablative	*bitū	*bitubim	*bitubis
Instrumental	*bitū	*bitubim	*bitubis
Locative	*bitū	*bitubim	*bitubis

E.g. *beru "rotisserie spit" (neuter)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*beru	*berou	*berwā
Vocative	*beru	*berou	*berwā
Accusative	*beru	*berou	*berwā
Genitive	*berous	*berowou	*berowom
Dative	*berou	*berubom	*berubos
Ablative	*berū	*berubim	*berubis
Instrumental	*berū	*berubim	*berubis
Locative	*berū	*berubim	*berubis

Velar and dental stems

Before the *-s of the nominative singular, a velar consonant was fricated to *-x : *rīg- "king" > *rīxs. Likewise, final *-d devoiced to *-t-: *druwid- "druid" > *druwits.^[13]

E.g. *rīxs "king" (masculine)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*rīxs	*rīge	*rīges
Vocative	*rīxs	*rīge	*rīges
Accusative	*rīgam	*rīge	*rīgās
Genitive	*rīgos	*rīgou	*rīgom
Dative	*rīgei	*rīgobom	*rīgobos
Ablative	*rīgī	*rīgobim	*rīgobis
Instrumental	*rīge	*rīgobim	*rīgobis
Locative	*rīgi	*rīgobim	*rīgobis

E.g. *druwits "druid" (masculine)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*druwits	*druwide	*druwides
Vocative	*druwits	*druwide	*druwides
Accusative	*druwidem	*druwide	*druwidās
Genitive	*druwidos	*druwidou	*druwidom
Dative	*druwidei	*druwidobom	*druwidobos
Ablative	*druwidī	*druwidobim	*druwidobis
Instrumental	*druwide	*druwidobim	*druwidobis
Locative	*druwidi	*druwidobim	*druwidobis

E.g. *karants "friend" (masculine)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*karants	*karante	*karantes
Vocative	*karants	*karante	*karantes
Accusative	*karantam	*karante	*karantās
Genitive	*karantos	*karantou	*karantom
Dative	*karantei	*karantobom	*karantobos
Ablative	*karantī	*karantobim	*karantobis
Instrumental	*karante	*karantobim	*karantobis
Locative	*karanti	*karantobim	*karantobis

Nasal stems

Generally, nasal stems end in *-on-; this becomes *-ū in the nominative singular: *abon- "river" > *abū.

E.g. *abū "river" (feminine)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*abū	*abone	*abones
Vocative	*abū	*abone	*abones
Accusative	*abonam	*abone	*abonās
Genitive	*abonos	*abonou	*abonom
Dative	*abonei	*abnobom	*abnobos
Ablative	*abonī	*abnobim	*abnobis
Instrumental	*abone	*abnobim	*abnobis
Locative	*aboni	*abnobim	*abnobis

E.g. *anman "name" (neuter)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*anman	*anmanī	*anmanā
Vocative	*anman	*anmanī	*anmanā
Accusative	*anman	*anmanī	*anmanā
Genitive	*anmēs	*anmanou	*anmanom
Dative	*anmanei	*anmambom	*anmambos
Ablative	*anmanī	*anmambim	*anmambis
Instrumental	*anmane	*anmambim	*anmambis
Locative	*anmani	*anmambim	*anmambis

*s-stem nouns

Generally,*s-stems contain an *-es-, which becomes *-os in the nominative singular: *teges- 'house' > *tegos.

E.g.*tegos "house" (neuter)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*tegos	*tegese	*tegesa
Vocative	*tegos	*tegese	*tegesa
Accusative	*tegos	*tegese	*tegesa
Genitive	*tegesos	*tegesou	*tegesom
Dative	*tegesi	*tegesobom	*tegesobos
Ablative	*tegesī	*tegesobim	*tegesobis
Instrumental	*tegese	*tegesobim	*tegesobis
Locative	*tegesi	*tegesobim	*tegesobis

*r-stem nouns

• r-stems are rare and principally confined to names of relatives. Typically they end in *-ter-, which becomes *-tīr in the nominative and *-tr- in all other cases aside from the accusative: *ɸater- 'father' > *ɸatīr, *ɸatros.

E.g. *ɸatīr 'father' (masculine)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*ɸatīr	*ɸatere	*ɸateres
Vocative	*ɸatīr	*ɸatere	*ɸateres
Accusative	*ɸateram	*ɸatere	*ɸaterās
Genitive	*ɸatros	*ɸatrou	*ɸatrom
Dative	*ɸatrei	*ɸatrebom	*ɸatrebos
Ablative	*ɸatrī	*ɸatrebim	*ɸatrebis
Instrumental	*ɸatre	*ɸatrebim	*ɸatrebis
Locative	*ɸatri	*ɸatrebim	*ɸatrebis

E.g. *mātīr 'mother' (feminine)

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*mātīr	*mātere	*māteres
Vocative	*mātīr	*mātere	*māteres
Accusative	*māteram	*mātere	*māterās
Genitive	*mātros	*mātrou	*mātrom
Dative	*mātrei	*mātrebom	*mātrebos
Ablative	*mātrī	*mātrebim	*mātrebis
Instrumental	*mātre	*mātrebim	*mātrebis
Locative	*mātri	*mātrebim	*mātrebis

Pronouns

The following personal pronouns in Celtic can be reconstructed as follows:^{[14]: 220–221 [15]: 281}

Case	First-person		Second-person
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*mī	*snī	*tū	*swī
Accusative	*me	*snos	*tu	*swes
Genitive	*mene	?	*towe	?

The following third-person pronouns in Proto-Celtic may also be reconstructed.^{[16]: 62 [14]: 220}

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	*es, *ēs	*sī	*ed	*eyes
Accusative	*em	*seyam? *sīm?		*sūs
Genitive	*esyo	*esyās	*esyo	*ēsom? *esom?
Dative Instrumental Locative	*e(s)yōi	*esyāi	*e(s)yōi	*ēbis

Verbs

From comparison between early Old Irish and Gaulish forms it seems that Continental and Insular Celtic verbs developed differently and so the study of Irish and Welsh may have unduly weighted past opinion of Proto-Celtic verb morphology.^{[citation needed]} It can be inferred from Gaulish and Celtiberian as well as Insular Celtic that the Proto-Celtic verb had at least three moods:

• indicative — seen in e.g. 1st sg. Gaulish delgu "I hold", Old Irish tongu "I swear"
• imperative — seen in e.g. 3rd sg. Celtiberian usabituz, Gaulish appisetu
• subjunctive — seen in e.g. 3rd sg. Gaulish buetid "may he be", Celtiberian asekati

and four tenses:

• present — seen in e.g. Gaulish uediíu-mi "I pray", Celtiberian zizonti "they sow"
• preterite — seen in e.g. 3rd sg. Gaulish sioxti, Lepontic KariTe
• imperfect — perhaps in Celtiberian kombalkez, atibion
• future — seen in e.g. 3rd sg. Gaulish bissiet, Old Irish bieid "he shall be"

A probable optative mood also features in Gaulish (tixsintor) and an infinitive (with a characteristic ending -unei) in Celtiberian.^[17][18]

Verbs were formed by adding suffixes to a verbal stem. The stem might be thematic or athematic, an open or a closed syllable.

Primary endings

The primary endings in Proto-Celtic were as follows. They were used to form the present, future, and subjunctive conjugations.^[14]

Proto-Celtic primary endings

Person and number	Basic endings		Thematic present		Nasal-infixed seṭ-root present *rinati "to sell"
	Active	Mediopassive	Active	Mediopassive	Active
1st sg.	*-ū (thematic) *-mi (athematic)	*-ūr	*-ū	*-ūr	*rināmi
2nd sg.	*-si	*-tar	*-esi	*-etar	*rināsi
3rd sg.	*-ti	*-tor	*-eti	*-etor	*rināti
1st pl.	*-mosi	*-mor	*-omosi	*-omor	*rinamosi
2nd pl.	*-tesi	*-dwe	*-etesi	*-edwe	*rinatesi
3rd pl.	*-nti	*-ntor	*-onti	*-ontor	*rinanti

Nasal-infix presents

In Proto-Celtic, the Indo-European nasal infix presents split into two categories: ones originally derived from laryngeal-final roots (i.e. seṭ roots in Sanskrit), and ones that were not (i.e. from aniṭ roots). In seṭ verbs, the nasal appears at the end of the present stem, while in aniṭ-derived verbs the nasal was followed by a root-final stop (generally -g- in Old Irish). Aniṭ nasal infix verbs conjugated exactly like basic thematic verbs in the present tense.

On the other hand, the seṭ presents originally had a long vowel after the nasal in the singular and -a- after the nasal in the plural, but the attested Celtic languages levelled this alternation away. Gaulish shows traces of the singular long-vowel vocalism while Old Irish generalized the plural -a- to the singular.^[19]

Preterite formations

There were two or three major preterite formations in Proto-Celtic, plus another moribund type.

• The s-preterite
• The reduplicated suffixless preterite (originating from the PIE reduplicated stative)
• The t-preterite
• The root aorist

The s-, t-, and root aorist preterites take Indo-European secondary endings, while the reduplicated suffix preterite took stative endings. These endings are:^{[20]: 62–67}

Proto-Celtic preterite endings

Person and number	Ending type
	Secondary endings	Stative endings
1st sg.	*-am	*-a
2nd sg.	*-s	*-as
3rd sg.	*-t	*-e
1st pl.	*-mo(s)	?
2nd pl.	*-te(s)	?
3rd pl.	*-ant	*-ar

t-preterite

The Old Irish t-preterite was traditionally assumed to be a divergent evolution from the s-preterite, but that derivation was challenged by Jay Jasanoff, who alleges that they were instead imperfects of Narten presents. Either derivation requires Narten ablaut anyway, leading to a stem vowel i in the singular and e in the plural. The stem vowel in the t-preterite was leveled to *e if the next consonant was either velar or *m, and *i in front of *r or *l.^[21]

Future formations

One major formation of the future in Celtic, the s-future. It is a descendant of the Proto-Indo-European (h₁)se-desiderative, with i-reduplication in many verbs. The Old Irish a- and s-future come from here.^[22]

Another future formation, attested only in Gaulish, is the -sye-desiderative.

Subjunctive formations

Most verbs took one subjunctive suffix in Proto-Celtic, -(a)s-, followed by the thematic primary endings. It was a descendant of the subjunctive of an Indo-European sigmatic thematic formation *-seti. The -ase- variant originated in roots that ended in a laryngeal in Proto-Indo-European; when the *-se- suffix was attached right after a laryngeal, the laryngeal regularly vocalized into *-a-. It would then analogically spread to other Celtic strong verb roots ending in sonorants in addition to the weak verbs, even if the root did not originally end in a laryngeal.^[22]

There were also three verbs that did not use -(a)se-, instead straight-out taking thematised primary endings. Two of these verbs are *bwiyeti "to be, exist" (subjunctive *bweti) and *klinutor "to hear" (subjunctive *klowetor).^[23]

Primary subjunctive formations in Proto-Celtic generally use the e-grade of the verb root, even if the present stem uses the zero-grade.

Imperative formation

Imperative endings in Proto-Celtic were as follows:^{[14]: 147–148}

Imperative endings in Proto-Celtic

Person and number	Active endings
	Basic endings	With thematic vowels
2nd sg.	-∅, *-si	*-e
3rd sg.	*-tou	*-etou
1st pl.	*-mo(s)	*-omo(s)
2nd pl.	*-te(s)	*-ete(s)
3rd pl.	*-ntou	*-ontou

Second-person singular imperative

The second-person singular imperative was generally endingless in the active; no ending was generally added to athematic verbs. On thematic -e/o- verbs, the imperative ended in thematic vowel *-e. However, there is also another second-person singular active imperative ending, -si, which was attached to the verb root athematically even with thematic strong verbs.^[24]

The thematic deponent second-person singular imperative ending was *-eso. The -the in Old Irish is secondary.^{[25][14]: 140}

Example conjugations

Scholarly reconstructions ^{[6][26][27][28]} may be summarised in tabular format.^{[dubious ]}

Conjugation like *bere/o- 'bear, carry, flow'

	Person	Present		Imperfect		Future		Past
		Active	Medio- passive	Active	Medio- passive	Active	Medio- passive	Active	Medio- passive
Indicative	1st sg.	*berū	*berūr	*berennem	—	*bibrām	*bibrār	*bertū	—
	2nd sg.	*beresi	*beretar	*berītū	—	*bibrāsi	*bibrātar	*bertes	—
	3rd sg.	*bereti	*beretor	*bere(to)	*beretei	*bibrāti	*bibrātor	*bert	?
	1st pl.	*beromosi	*berommor	*beremmets	—	*bibrāmes	*bibrāmmor	*bertomu	—
	2nd pl.	*beretesi	*beredwe	*beretes (Goidelic) *bere-swīs (Brythonic)	—	*bibrāte	*bibrādwe	*bertete	—
	3rd pl.	*beronti	*berontor	*berentets	*berentits (?)	*bibrānt	*bibrāntor	*bertont	?
Subjunctive	1st sg.	*berasū	*berār	*berānnem	—	—	—	—	—
	2nd sg.	*berasesi	*berātar	*berātū	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd sg.	*beraseti	*berātor	*berā(to)	—	—	—	—	—
	1st pl.	*berasomosi	*berāmmor	*berāmmets	—	—	—	—	—
	2nd pl.	*berasetesi	*berādwe	*berātes (Goidelic) *berā-swīs (Brythonic)	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd pl.	*berasonti	*berāntor	*berāntets	—	—	—	—	—
Imperative	2nd sg.	*bere	*beretar	—	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd sg.	*beretou	*beror	—	—	—	—	—	—
	1st pl.	*beromos	*berommor	—	—	—	—	—	—
	2nd pl.	*berete	*beredwe	—	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd pl.	*berontou	*berontor	—	—	—	—	—	—
Participle		*beront-	*beromno-	—	*beretejo-	—	—	*bertjo-	*britos

Conjugation like *mārā- 'greaten, magnify, enlarge'

	Person	Present		Imperfect		Future		Past
		Active	Medio- passive	Active	Medio- passive	Active	Medio- passive	Active	Medio- passive
Indicative	1st sg.	*mārāmi	*mārār	*mārānnem	—	*māriswāmi	*māriswār	*mārātsū	—
	2nd sg.	*mārāsi	*mārātar	*mārātū	—	*māriswāsi	*māriswātar	*mārātssi	—
	3rd sg.	*mārāti	*mārātor	*mārā(to)	*mārātei	*māriswāti	*māriswātor	*mārātsti	—
	1st pl.	*mārāmosi	*mārāmmor	*mārāmmets	—	*māriswāmos	*māriswāmmor	*mārātsomu	—
	2nd pl.	*mārātesi	*mārādwe	*mārātes (Goidelic) *mārā-swīs (Brythonic)	—	*māriswāte	*māriswādwe	*mārātsete	—
	3rd pl.	*mārānti	*mārāntor	*mārāntets	*mārāntits (?)	*māriswānti	*māriswāntor	*mārātsont	—
Subjunctive	1st sg.	*mārasū	*māror	*māronnem	—	—	—	—	—
	2nd sg.	*mārasesi	*mārotar	*mārotū	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd sg.	*māraseti	*mārotor	*māro(to)	—	—	—	—	—
	1st pl.	*mārasomosi	*mārommor	*mārommets	—	—	—	—	—
	2nd pl.	*mārasetesi	*mārodwe	*mārotes (Goidelic) *māro-swīs (Brythonic)	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd pl.	*mārasonti	*mārontor	*mārontets	—	—	—	—	—
Imperative	2nd sg.	*mārā	*mārātrīs	—	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd sg.	*mārātou	*mārār	—	—	—	—	—	—
	1st pl.	*mārāmos	*mārāmmor	—	—	—	—	—	—
	2nd pl.	*mārāte	*mārādwe	—	—	—	—	—	—
	3rd pl.	*mārāntou	*mārāntor	—	—	—	—	—	—
Participle		*mārānt-	*mārāmno-	—	*mārātejo-	—	—	*mārātjo-	*mārātos

Copula

The copula *esti was irregular. It had both athematic and thematic conjugations in the present tense. Schrijver supposes that its athematic present was used clause-initially and the thematic conjugation was used when that was not the case.^[29]

Conjugation of *esti in Proto-Celtic

Person	Present
	Athematic	Thematic
1st sg.	*esmi	*esū
2nd sg.	*esi	*esesi
3rd sg.	*esti	*eseti
1st pl.	*esmosi	*esomosi
2nd pl.	**estes	*esetes
3rd pl.	*senti	**esonti

See also

• Pre-Celtic
• Italo-Celtic
• Beaker culture
• Urnfield
• Hallstatt culture
• La Tène culture
• Goidelic substrate hypothesis
• Ligures
• Azilian

References

Notes

1. Celtic literature at britannica.com, accessed 7 February 2018
2. Rhys, John (1905). Evans, E. Vincent (ed.). "The Origin of the Welsh Englyn and Kindred Metres". Y Cymmrodor. London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. XVIII.
3. Koch, John T. (2020). Celto-Germanic Later Prehistory and Post-Proto-Indo-European vocabulary in the North and West, pp. 45–48.
4. Schumacher, Stefan (2004). Die keltischen Primärverben. Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon (in German). Innsbruck, Austria: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck. p. 85. ISBN 3-85124-692-6.
5. Schrijver, Peter (2016). "17. Ancillary study: Sound Change, the Italo-Celtic Linguistic Unity, and the Italian Homeland of Celtic". In Koch, John T.; Cunliffe, Barry (eds.). Celtic from the West 3: Atlantic Europe in the Metal Ages – Questions of Shared Language. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books. pp. 489–502. ISBN 978-1-78570-227-3. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
6. Matasović 2009.
7. Schrijver 2015, pp. 196–197.
8. Welsh adfer 'to restore' < *ate-ber-, cymeryd < obsolete cymer < M.W. cymeraf < *kom-ber- (with -yd taken from the verbal noun cymryd < *kom-britu).
9. However, according to Hackstein (2002) *CH.CC > Ø in unstressed medial syllables. Thus, H can disappear in weak cases while being retained in strong cases, e.g. IE nom.sg. *dʰugh₂tḗr vs. gen.sg. *dʰugtr-os 'daughter' > early PC *dugater- ~ dugtr-. This then led to a paradigmatic split, resulting in Celtiberian gen.sg. tuateros, nom.pl. tuateres vs. Gaulish duxtir (< *dugtīr). (Zair 2012: 161, 163).
10. Eska, Joseph F. (March 12, 2018). "Laryngeal Realism and the Prehistory of Celtic". Transactions of the Philological Society. Wiley. 116 (3): 320–331. doi:10.1111/1467-968x.12122. ISSN 0079-1636.
11. Eska, Joseph (January 26, 2021). "Laryngeal Realism and early Insular Celtic orthography". North American Journal of Celtic Studies. 3 (1): 1–17. ISSN 2472-7490. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
12. Pedersen, Holger (1913). Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen, 2. Band, Bedeutungslehre (Wortlehre). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-26119-4.
13. Stokes, Whitley (November 1887). "Celtic Declension". Transactions of the Philological Society. 20 (1): 97–201.
14. McCone, Kim (2006). The Origins and Development of the Insular Celtic Verbal Complex. Maynooth studies in Celtic linguistics. Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland. ISBN 978-0-901519-46-7.
15. Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940). A Grammar of Old Irish. Translated by Binchy, D. A; Bergin, Osborn. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 1-85500-161-6.
16. Schrijver, Peter (1997). Studies in the History of Celtic Pronouns and Particles. Maynooth studies in Celtic linguistics. Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland. ISBN 978-0-901519-59-7.
17. Stefan Schumacher, Die keltischen Primärverben: Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon (Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität, 2004).
18. Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise: Description linguistique, commentaire d'inscriptions choisies (Paris: Errance, revised ed. 2003).
19. Lambert, Pierre-Yves; Stifter, David (2012). "Le plomb gaulois de Rezé". Études Celtiques (in French and English). 38 (1): 139–164. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2012.2351. ISSN 0373-1928.
20. Schumacher, Stefan; Schulze-Thulin, Britta; aan de Wiel, Caroline (2004). Die keltischen Primärverben. Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon (in German). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen der Universität Innsbruck. ISBN 3-85124-692-6.
21. Jasanoff, Jay (2012). "Long-vowel preterites in Indo-European". In Melchert, Craig (ed.). The Indo-European Verb. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag. pp. 127–135.
22. McCone, Kim (1991). The Indo-European Origins of the Old Irish Nasal Presents, Subjunctives and Futures. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft. IBS-Vertrieb. ISBN 978-3-85124-617-9.
23. Darling, Mark (2020). The Subjunctive in Celtic: Studies in Historical Phonology and Morphology (Thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.57857. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
24. Jasanoff, Jay (1986). "Old Irish tair 'come!'". Transactions of the Philological Society. Wiley. 84 (1): 132–141. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968x.1986.tb01050.x. ISSN 0079-1636.
25. Barnes, Timothy (2015). "Old Irish cuire, its congeners, and the ending of the 2nd sg. middle imperative". Ériu. 65 (1): 49–56. doi:10.3318/eriu.2015.65.3. ISSN 2009-0056. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
26. Alexander MacBain, 1911, xxxvi–xxxvii; An etymological dictionary of the Gaelic language; Stirling: Eneas MacKay
27. Alan Ward, A Checklist of Proto-Celtic Lexical Items (1982, revised 1996), 7–14.
28. Examples of attested Gaulish verbs at http://www.angelfire.com/me/ik/gaulish.html
29. Schrijver, Peter (December 6, 2019). "Italo-Celtic and the Inflection of *es- 'be'". In Serangeli, Matilde; Olander, Thomas (eds.). Dispersals and Diversification. Brill. pp. 209–235. doi:10.1163/9789004416192_012. ISBN 9789004414501. S2CID 213806505.

Bibliography

• Cowgill, Warren (1975). "The origins of the Insular Celtic conjunct and absolute verbal endings". In H. Rix (ed.). Flexion und Wortbildung: Akten der V. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Regensburg, 9.–14. September 1973. Wiesbaden: Reichert. pp. 40–70.
• Evans, D. Simon (1964). A Grammar of Middle Welsh. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
• Hackstein, Olav (2002). "Uridg. *CH.CC > *C.CC". Historische Sprachforschung. 115: 1–22.
• Lane, George S. (1933). "The Germano-Celtic Vocabulary". Language. 9 (3): 244–264. doi:10.2307/409353. JSTOR 409353.
• Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, 9. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1.
• McCone, Kim (1996). Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change. Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, St. Patrick's College. ISBN 978-0-901519-40-5.
• Pedersen, Holger (1913). Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen. 2. Band, Bedeutungslehre (Wortlehre). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-26119-4.
• Schrijver, Peter (1994). "The Celtic adverbs for 'against' and 'with' and the early apocope of *-i". Ériu. 45: 151–89.
• Schrijver, Peter (1995). Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-5183-820-6.
• Schrijver, Peter (2015). "Pruners and trainers of the Celtic family tree: The rise and development of Celtic in light of language contact". Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Celtic Studies, Maynooth 2011. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. pp. 191–219.
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1946). A Grammar of Old Irish. Tr. D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
• Zair, Nicholas (2012). The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic. Leiden: Brill.

External links

 

For a list of words relating to Proto-Celtic language, see the Proto-Celtic language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Leiden University has compiled , a project supervised by Alexander Lubotsky and which includes a Proto-Celtic dictionary by Ranko Matasović. Those dictionaries published by Brill in the Leiden series have been removed from the University databases for copyright reasons. Alternatively, a reference for Proto-Celtic vocabulary is provided by the University of Wales at the following sites:

• Proto-Celtic to English Wordlist (PDF)
• English to Proto-Celtic Wordlist (PDF)