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The article focuses on the role of Celtic languages in Romantic-period travel writing and their impact on narrative construction. Topics include the misrepresentation of travel experiences due to ignoring language differences, the evolving scholarship on Romanticism challenging traditional anglophone perspectives, and the significance of linguistic diversity in understanding Romantic-era Britain.

Copyright of Language Problems & Language Planning is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

McWhorter (2002) argued that contact with Norse caused simplifications in English grammar that set English apart from other Germanic languages. This paper focuses on one of the losses McWhorter attributed to the linguistic impact of the Scandinavian invasions, External Possessors. An investigation of electronic Old and Early Middle English corpora reveals that the construction was already on the decline in the Old English period, and that Norse contact cannot explain the Early Middle English data. There is no support for the view that the loss of the construction spread from the Scandinavianized areas southwards. The facts are consistent with the view that while Celtic influence did not cause the loss of the construction in Old English, Celtic speakers shifting to English may have played a role in triggering the initial decline of the construction. Study of non-standard variants of other Germanic languages is needed to increase our understanding of the history of External Possessor constructions in those languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the impact of foreign influences on Old English language. The Old English period is followed by Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. Also mentioned are the Celtic influences on Old English, the Latin influences on Old English, and the Scandinavian influence on Old English.

The article explores the etymology of the term "beagle," tracing its origins from Middle English and speculating on its possible connections to Old Norse and Celtic languages, shedding light on its evolution and usage over time. Topics include the potential Celtic influence on the name, the linguistic connections to Old Norse terms for dogs, and the cultural and economic significance of beagles in medieval English society.

Copyright of Journal of Language Relationship is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Before the late eighth century, with a few exceptions (epigraphy, the languages of the Caucasus and the North-Western Isles), little had been written in Europe in languages other than Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The long ninth century saw this monopoly of the 'three sacred languages' shaken and challenged: several vernacular languages (Celtic, Germanic and Slavonic, but also, if to a lesser extent, Romance) appeared in writing for the first time and others developed in significant ways. This paper, introducing this special issue on Vernacular Languages in the Long Ninth Century, starts with an assessment of the linguistic situation of Europe before the changes began; it goes on with a summary of the main developments known to have taken place in the long ninth century; it then addresses their possible connections and observable entanglements and identifies the conditions that allowed the emergence and the sustained flourishing of written vernaculars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose a functional account of the Welsh mood system, focussing on responsives in particular. The discourse functions of responsives are interpreted through the concept of negotiation within the systemic functional linguistic framework, which offers a rich model for accounting for both initiations and responses, including possible tracking and challenging moves. By examining the interaction of mood together with specific features of Welsh, e.g. a dominant VSO clause ordering, mood particles, Subject ellipsis and a complex system of negation, we are able to show that Welsh tends to highlight interpersonal meanings in clause initial position. As the first functional description of Welsh, we also set out important directions for future research, based on the findings presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the principal Celtic languages, Irish is conspicuous for the paucity of printed production between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. Various explanations have been advanced for this by Irish scholars and historians. Among them number suggestions that, since printing was an urban phenomenon, and since towns in Ireland were largely English-speaking, printers therefore lacked the necessary language skills. This paper evaluates such explanations through an exploration of printing in Ireland of texts in Celtic languages other than Irish. More was printed in Welsh than in Irish in Dublin in the 1740s and 1760s, while two substantial collections of poetry in Scottish Gaelic were printed in Cork and Galway around 1800. The paper concludes that Irish printers could work in different languages, and their supposed lack of linguistic skills was not therefore a major factor in preventing the production of printed Irish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the results of a research project carried out over a period of 25 years on the spoken Irish Gaelic of the Aran Islands, Co. Galway, Ireland. It combines microdialectology with sociolinguistics and investigates a wide range of phonological, grammatical, and lexical variables. In addition to revealing complex patterns of geolinguistic variation involving small local areas on the main island and on neighboring islands, it also shows the clear influence of age, gender, and individual creativity on the patterns of variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inscriptional remains of Gaulish preserve syntactic behaviours that are not expected from the perspective of the diachronic schemes usually posited for the development of early Insular Celtic syntax from Proto-Indo-European. Widespread evidence is attested, particularly for the behaviour of clitics, that does not seem reconcilable with many of the assumptions made in previous studies regarding the nature of the syntax of Proto-Celtic. Gaulish also evidently features scrambling-type phenomena such as left branch extraction that are not usually thought to appear in other Celtic languages. An analysis which begins with an assessment of these features leads to a more empirically predicated and consistent understanding of the early development of Celtic word order than has been proffered previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The etymological study of Early Irish began in the Old Irish period (c. 700‒900 a.d.), under the influence of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, and, because of its flexible hermeneutic potential, it enjoyed great popularity in the middle and early modern periods. It is only with the rise of modern comparative linguistics, especially of Indo-European linguistics in the second half of the 19th century, that the art of Irish etymology attained scholarly rigour. Over the past 150 years, paradigm shifts in Indo-European studies (laryngeal theory, accent/ablaut classes of inflection, derivational morphology) and the development of modern technology (digitisation of texts, e.g. eDIL, ISOS) have repeatedly chang-ed the methods and the course of Irish etymological studies. The impact of some of these external factors will be illustrated with examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After providing an analysis of Celtic phonology as per the approach to phonology known as Laryngeal Realism, this paper addresses the differing realizations of the two mutations common to Goidelic and Brittonic, the first lenition and nasalization. It is proposed that differences in interarticulatory timing between consecutive segments led to the attested differing realizations of these mutations. Some attention is also paid to the differing realizations of nasalization between Irish and Scottish Gaelic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the evidence brought forward by Katherine Forsyth in support of the hypothesis that the 'Pictish' ogham inscriptions of Scotland are linguistically Celtic. Having examined the five most promising inscriptions minutely, I conclude that they are in fact not Celtic, and that 'Celtic-looking' sequences in them are due to coincidence. Thus, the language of this corpus of inscriptions remains unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to look at the changes currently taking place in regards to the Basic Colour Term buí in Irish. Irish, a Celtic language, is, along with English, one of the official languages of Ireland although it is very much a minority one, with an overwhelming number of L2 speakers of varying linguistic ability. As a result of this, and the fact that the language itself is surrounded by a sea of English, English syntax and vocabulary--and its way of perceiving the world--is constantly being brought to bear on the language, and L1 speakers are continually being exposed to this and coming under its influence. One illustration of this is the Basic Colour Term buí. Traditionally, this term had its focus on 'yellow' but also covered 'orange' through light brown or 'tan'. However, it is nowadays most frequently understood by L2 speakers as a one-to-one equivalent for the English term 'yellow', with oráiste 'orange' and donn 'brown' being used, as in English, to cover those other shades that would traditionally be part of buí. To this end, I present results from field-work carried out amongst L1 native speakers of Irish to see how far this change has taken place in their own understanding of the language and how much the traditional Irish colour system is yielding to that of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the long-debated question of the origins of tree names and the methodological problems related to PIE etymologies. It aims at putting forward some basic principles of etymology, and at applying these principles to the analysis of twelve tree names. It also seeks to demonstrate the relevance of substratic pre-IE languages' influence on the lexicon, and at isolating geographic areas corresponding to pre-Indo- European lexical stocks lying behind modern Celtic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long assumed that the modern popularity of the Celts stems from an eighteenth-century 'Celtic Revival' linked to the poems of Ossian and associated with the first stirrings of the Romantic movement. This article challenges this explanation by considering the study of linguistic texts and ideas of the ancient Celtic language in the broad field of antiquarianism from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Instead, a new narrative arc for the Celts is proposed: rather than experiencing a revival in the eighteenth century, ideas about the Celts were actually in a long-term pattern of decline relative to their earlier pan-European popularity. Historicising early-modern ideas of the ancient Celtic language and its modern derivatives also helps to illustrate that the study of languages was primarily a tool for historical investigation into the origins of Europe and its different nations: antiquarianism was philological as much as it was archaeological. As such, 'linguistic antiquarianism' was the key driver of research into the ancient Celts and was the base on top of which eighteenth-century literary interest in the Celts developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the proto‐Celtic plosive system through the lens of Laryngeal Realism. Drawing upon phonetic data from contemporary Celtic languages and philological data from medieval Insular Celtic and ancient Continental Celtic languages, it concludes that the active Laryngeal feature in these languages is not [voice], but [spread glottis], and that this feature should be projected back to proto‐Celtic. Such an analysis allows for a much more straightforward analysis of the evolution of the early Celtic plosive system, and, in particular, allows for a non‐stipulative analysis of perhaps the best known of Celtic sound changes, the loss of proto‐IE */p/, in simple aerodynamic terms. It is demonstrated, furthermore, that the loss of proto‐IE */p/ cannot be explained by contact with pre‐Basque or Iberian, but, instead, was, in all likelihood, a natural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tackles the important question of practitioner engagement and is the first to present an overview of relevant Gaelic medium education (GME) research. Following the formal inception in 1985, GME is now more widely available across Scotland. An overview of GME is presented and situates provision within the other Celtic minority languages of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. While considerable achievements have been achieved in the provision of GME, it does mean that researchers have had a finite number of teachers to work with. Given the well-known difficulties of conducting research in applied settings, the noteworthy engagement and participation suggests Gaelic medium teachers are particularly eager to contribute and should be recognised when Gaelic is viewed internationally. The article ends with an outline of potential directions for future work and the scope of research needed to strengthen the developing body of research regarding GME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite more than a century of research, the origin of the Insular Celtic double system of verbal inflection is still debated. In this paper, we defend the thesis that the set of absolute endings originated by the agglutination of a subject clitic to the verb form. This clitic marked the declarative (vs. relative) use of verbs, since its distribution was complementary to that of the relative marker *yo. The present indicative as well as the preterite (in both the absolute and conjunct inflection) of one strong verb (berid 'bring') and one weak verb (lécid 'leave') are reconstructed according to this theory. For compound verb forms, the clitic ~ *yo alternation can be posited as well. The cases in which the distribution of initial mutations on the verb stem after preverbs does not follow the diachronic phonological rules of Old Irish (that is, there is no lenition after preverbs originally ending in a vowel) are accounted for from a synchronic standpoint. This "anomalous" behaviour can be explained by positing that a functionally relevant (morphological) system of mutations had replaced the previous phonology-based system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A systematic search for Celtic derivatives of IE *peug′‐ /*peuk′‐ ‘to pierce’ illustrates the extent to which Indo‐European etymological dictionaries have tended to overlook the existence of cognates in the Celtic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses lingual means of representing value-concepts in archaic Germanic, Celtic and Slavonic languages. The article discusses these concepts' role in the categorization of the world and suggests a universalia-oriented systemic interpretation of the said phenomena. The respective matrix applied for interpreting universal patterns of informational exchange is introduced. Special attention is paid to the cognitive and linguo-cultural background of the units under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonetically, the archetypal rhotic /r/ is a coronal speech sound that is often half-way between consonants and vowels, usually acting in words as a consonant syllable-wise. Its positional and structural functions in selected languages are described here from a diachronic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we use a translation corpus of English novels translated into two closely related Celtic languages, Welsh and Breton, as one way of shedding light on the extent to which languages can influence each other over time: Welsh has a long history of contact with English, and Breton with French. Ever since the work of Leonard Talmy (1991, 2000 etc.), linguists have recognized that languages fall into a small number of types with respect to how they prefer to talk about motion events. English is a good exemplar of the satellite-framed type, whereas French exemplifies the verb-framed type. Translation scholars have observed that translating between languages of two different types raises interesting questions (Slobin 2005; Cappelle 2012), and the topic is also of interest from the perspective of language contact: is it possible for a language of one type, in a situation of prolonged and intense bilingualism with a language of another type, to be influenced or perhaps even to change its own rhetorical preferences? The translation corpus provides a body of data which holds constant the starting point-the cue in each case was an English motion event in the source text. We do indeed find that Welsh and Breton have diverged in important ways in terms of their preferences for encoding motion events: Breton is revealed to have moved significantly in the direction of French with respect to these preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents select phonological processes found to occur in Barak Valley Meitei (hence forth BVM) using a descriptive framework. The idiosyncratic phonological feature of BVM is the substitution of /ɟ/ in the place of /j/ in word initial position. This is not found to occur in other positions except as allophones after /ə/ prefixation. Phonological processes occurring in the language such as Lenition, Apocope, Elision, and Vowel harmony lend the language a more distinct quality and the paper attempts to account for these phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present and future situation of the Celtic languages is intrinsically interesting. Two are moribund, while the other four possess varying degrees of strength and institutional support. From the weakest to the strongest, however, there are pressing concerns about stability and maintenance, to say nothing of possible revitalisation. All are faced with powerful linguistic neighbours, and all have heartlands under pressure from the surrounding non-Celtic-speaking 'mainstream'. The activist community remains small and sometimes internally fragmented, and it struggles to transform a broad but passive societal goodwill - one that has, quite importantly, grown in recent years - into energised support for the language. But the Celtic languages also have a real and generalisable significance for other 'small'- language settings, inasmuch as the features that bear upon their health and development are commonly found elsewhere. This article focuses mainly upon the difficulties besetting these varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles including scholarship on the Celtic languages in education, likelihood of choice of Gaelic-medium education in Scotland and status and future trajectories of Celtic languages.

This article reconstructs the syntax of pre-Old Irish copular clauses using relic or anomalous formations within Old Irish. It is therefore an exercise in syntactic internal reconstruction. The two patterns that are reconstructed are (a) the word order of subject and predicate, which was Predicate Subject in Old Irish but is argued to have been Subject Predicate in pre-Old Irish; (b) the order of negation, the clause-typing enclitic * de , the relative pronoun and the copula which is argued to be NEG+REL+ de +COP. Furthermore, It is argued that a change from a fully verbal copula * issi in pre-Old Irish to a clause-typing particle is in Old Irish is implicated in the innovation of both (a) and (b). The reconstruction is evaluated using the technique of 'local directionality', by examining detailed feature/phrase-structure analyses of the constructions in at least two languages and hypothesizing the most economical and plausible relation between the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]