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This article addresses the use of the auxiliary do in affirmative declarative clauses (so-called periphrastic do) during the early stages of the shift from Irish, the Celtic language spoken in Ireland, to English as the more common vernacular language there. A corpus compiled from the digital edition of the 1641 Depositions, a collection of witness testimonies recorded after a rebellion in Ireland, is used to examine the functions of periphrastic do. The focus is on possible habitual uses, since contemporary Irish English allows for the marking of habitual aspect in ways which differ significantly from the marking of habituality in other varieties of English. The data show that a periphrasis consisting of do plus the infinitive of a lexical verb (V) is often used in the 1641 Depositions in combination with markers of duration, yielding a habitual interpretation. It is argued that such uses, whose existence in the superstratal variety, Early Modern British English, has not been established, provided the conditions for the exaptation of do as a dedicated marker of habitual aspect, on the model of the habitual categories found in the verbal system of Irish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the sixth century, Celtic peregrini (wandering scholars) emerged from Britain and Ireland to establish monastic centres for mission and evangelism. British New Monastic expression would no doubt benefit from increased adoption of their distinctive monastic practices. These practices include the Celtic understanding of the sacramental universe - all creation steeped in the presence of God - all pointing towards the ultimate glory of his kingdom. In risky living they undertook both physical and inner spiritual journeys. They emerged from monastic schools and long periods of seasonal formation. They embraced rhythms of ebb and flow, searching for silence and solitude, to first breathe in the Holy Spirit, before enthusiastically embarking on evangelism. They drew boundaries - encircling the sacred core, whilst keeping out distractions. They developed frameworks of daily prayer and Scripture reading, based on the Psalmody, intentionally building scaffolding - Rules of Life and vows, constantly refocussing themselves on their ultimate goal of prayer without ceasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this study is a particular type of compound preposition found in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. The compound consists of a simple preposition followed by a noun which it governs, the noun in question often pertaining to human perception or activity. The membership of this 'nominal' prepositional class, as will be seen, is quite extensive, so that the category in question, as well as refining the reach, and extending enormously the range, of prepositional activity, adds a separate, often somewhat picturesque, dimension to syntax in the languages in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a critical review of a ten-chapter volume dealing with various aspects of the study of place names. Conceived as a concise but comprehensive reference source for students in toponomastics, the book has two distinct focuses, namely historical toponomastics (i.e. the study of place names within the framework of historical linguistics and contact language theory) and social toponomastics, but also covers the study of toponymy in the context of historical geography, language documentation, and cartography. Despite the fact that the book presents a good survey of some topics and contains relevant references to scholarly publications, which may be useful for students, it displays numerous issues in the chapters related to etymology, language change, and historical linguistics, which may give the readers a distorted idea of the research practices normally used in the corresponding sub-fields of toponomastics. In some cases, the analysis proposed in the book lacks arguments and further explanations, while in others, it is simply based on an a priori fallacy.

In the article the name of the West Bohemian river Mže and its tributaries are analyzed in etymological perspective. In the first plan their Slavic etymologies are analyzed. In the second plan, possibilities of their pre-Slavic origin are verified. In the case of the hydronyms Mže and Úhlava their Germanic and Celtic etymologies are discussed, while the names of other tributaries are of Slavic origin. Finally the process of replacement of the hydronymic nomenclature during changes of dominant languages is generalized in the typological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents some new insights into the Celtic development of the inherited nasal sonorants that modify the reconstruction offered in Die Vertretung der indogermanischen liquiden und nasalen Sonanten im Keltischen (Innsbruck 1987). The new reconstruction not only identifies a unitary, Common-Celtic vocalization, but also explains the Goidelic realizations of the sonorants in a very simple way by taking into account word-stress position, phonetic context and relative chronology. It appears that the inherited nasal sonorants did not vocalize at once, but in at least two different Celtic stages, as it was the case with several other sound-changes. Although this paper's main concern is to revise the vocalization of the so-called 'short' nasal sonorants, it also recapitulates the developments of the 'long nasal sonorants, i.e., those accompanied by an Indo-European laryngeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepositional form and function in Irish, as in other Modern Celtic languages, are topics of much significance. In Modern Irish numerous simple prepositions not only form compounds with possessive forms of personal pronouns but additionally marshal an impressive array of 'conjugated' forms corresponding to the various grammatical persons. Prepositions also play a crucial role in indicating aspect and are involved in passive/ reflexive roles with the verbal noun. This paper offers an overview of the functioning of a selection of important prepositions in the language and provides examples by way of illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horns, a form of headgear carried by Bovidae, have ethical and economic implications for ruminant production species such as cattle and goats. Hornless (polled) individuals are preferred. In cattle, four genetic variants (Celtic, Friesian, Mongolian and Guarani) are associated with the polled phenotype, which are clustered in a 300‐kb region on chromosome 1. As the variants are intergenic, the functional effect is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine if the POLLED variants affect chromatin structure or disrupt enhancers using publicly available data. Topologically associating domains (TADs) were analyzed using Angus‐ and Brahman‐specific Hi‐C reads from lung tissue of an Angus (Celtic allele) cross Brahman (horned) fetus. Predicted bovine enhancers and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing peaks for histone modifications associated with enhancers (H3K27ac and H3K4me1) were mapped to the POLLED region. TADs analyzed from Angus‐ and Brahman‐specific Hi‐C reads were the same, therefore, the Celtic variant does not appear to affect this level of chromatin structure. The Celtic variant is located in a different TAD from the Friesian, Mongolian, and Guarani variants. Predicted enhancers and histone modifications overlapped with the Guarani and Friesian variants but not the Celtic or Mongolian variants. This study provides insight into the mechanisms of the POLLED variants for disrupting horn development. These results should be validated using data produced from the horn bud region of horned and polled bovine fetuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antropo is the property of Antropo 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.)

This paper sheds light upon the conflicting, religious undertones of the two largest football clubs in Scotland, Rangers Football Club and Celtic Football Club, that is fuelled by the fanbases’ cultural dependencies within each association. These football clubs, known nationally across Scotland, have an established conflict of ideologies; beliefs that go far behind the goals of the football pitch. The main thrust of this paper, then, displays a compelling focus on the self-identity established through sport, and in this instance, football, while so too heightening the pertinence of the politics within this playing field.

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]

Celtic Christianity significantly contributed to the medieval Christian mission in the Christianization of Britain and Ireland. The Celtic missionary monks, particularly in the sixth century, set out in groups, traveled across Europe, and carried out the most remarkable missionary movement. The Celtic missionaries employed preaching methods that included non-Christians and Christians they saw as corrupted. This study examines the introduction of Christianity to Britain and Western Europe, as well as the religious and political developments that occurred in these regions until the seventh century. It also discusses the concept of peregrinatio, which describes the journeys of Celtic missionaries to spread the message of Christ. It analyzes this movement through the three key figures of the Celtic missionary movement: St. Columba (520-597), St. Aidan (590-651), and St. Columbanus (543-615). Finally, it highlights the similarities and differences among the names mentioned above in carrying out their missionary activities, including the materials they used, the problems they encountered, and the methods they used to achieve the missionary objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the world-famous rivalry between two Scottish based football clubs, Rangers and Celtic. It reflects on dominant representations of the origins, evolution and meaningfulness of this clash. A critical reading of these representations demonstrates they largely ignore or simplify the significance of history for this contest. This study contends that recognising the importance of aspects of Scottish/British imperialism especially contributes to a more informed understanding of these totemic clubs' foundations, heritages and supporter enmities and throws light on contemporary postcolonial socio-cultural and political identities in Scotland generally. Scrutinising both football commentary and contemporary artistic representations of past imperialist endeavours – in particular, the Great Tapestry of Scotland and Black Watch– contributes to a better understanding not only of this sporting rivalry but also to how Scotland's role as junior partner with England in the British Empire project, particularly in relation to Ireland, is remembered, contested, overlooked or celebrated in contemporary Scottish society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science and technology have been associated with modern Enlightenment, in a manner that elevated the rational mind over emotions and the body, a separation of the subjective mind from the object of observation, universal categories, objective observation, and linear causality. These assumptions, consolidated by Descartes and then Kant, have underpinned the philosophies of science, economics, policy, and political theory. They have shaped the modern world and enabled corporate freedom to exploit all 'resources' in the name of consumerism and global trade. Idealism has alienated subjective rationality from an idealised universal created world. In contrast, ancient indigenous ways of knowing are emerging as better exemplars of the interrelationship between individuals, communities, and organic and anorganic life forms. Celtic shapeshifters and praise poems forge an interwoven dance of geology, weather, plants, animals, and humanity with wisdom and politics. The Māori concept of whakapapa is the kin relations of everything, tied into complex claves as a taxonomy of familial ties. Animism was understood as pagan misidentification by modernity, but if the alienation set out by modern linear physics is severed, then the intra and inter-relationship of strata, atmosphere, ocean, and species are better relayed by indigenous philosophy than by outdated, colonial, modern assumptions. Celtic and Māori pantheism show us how entangled we are, and how special relationships are in place that last across generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As commonly used in its moral sense I will, for the purposes of this paper, take the concept of "conscience" to be the inherent ability of every healthy human being to perceive what is right and what is wrong and, on the strength of this perception, to control, monitor, evaluate and execute their actions. Such values as right or wrong, good or evil, just or unjust, and fair or unfair have existed throughout human history and are also shaped by an individual's cultural, political and economic environment. The medieval penitential literature offers just one such historical snapshot. These manuals or guides for confessors, including prayers, lists of questions to be asked by the confessor, and penances to be assigned for various sins were an integral part of the practice of private penance which began in the Celtic Church and later spread through Europe with the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon missions. Penitential books for use by confessors in private penance appeared in the sixth through ninth centuries. These texts were not as a rule decreed by episcopal synods. Their authority generally rested on the reputation of their compiler or editor. Public penances were assigned for public sins that caused scandal for the church. Private penances were assigned for private sins or matters of conscience. The Penitentials were generally more flexible than the churches' ancient canonical penitential system which they largely replaced. While later European Penitentials tended to provide more complete guidance for the confessor instead of mere lists of rules and penalties; such instruction is not entirely absent from the earlier Irish texts and ancillary documents. Thus, the goal of penance in the early middle ages was not only sacramental but also didactic. It would have been an occasion to inculcate Christian beliefs, an opportunity to model proper Christian behaviour and by extension a key part of the formation of conscience. As was the case with later expressions of casuistry (Etym. Latin casus, case, or problem to be solved) the purpose of the penitential literature was thus to adapt and apply the unchangeable norms of Christian morality to the changing and variable circumstances of human life albeit in somewhat rudimentary fashion. As such this literary genre and the pastoral practices stemming from it are a valid and worthy object of any historical study and theological analysis concerning the 'formation of conscience.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A La Tène kultúra Kr. e. 4–3. századi elterjedése az Alföldön, annak kapcsolatrendszere és viszonya a helyi, illetve szomszédos kulturális entitásokhoz továbbra is számos kérdést vet fel. Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok vármegyében zajló terepi és kutatói munkának köszönhetően bővülő késő vaskori régészeti leletanyag rendszeres feldolgozásával a korábbi évekhez képest jóval teljesebb képet alkothatunk a korszakban zajló folyamatokról. A Szolnoktól keletre fekvő Szajol település határában végzett terepbejárás és fémkeresőzés során egy maszkos üveggyöngy került elő. A korábban azonosított maszkos gyöngyök elsősorban az Északi-középhegység és az Alföld átmeneti zónájában, a Dunakanyarban, valamint a Felső-Tisza-vidéken kerültek elő. A jelen közleményben bemutatásra kerülő példány mostani ismereteink szerint a legdélebbi elfordulása ennek a tárgytípusnak Magyarország területén. The spread of the La Tène culture during the 4th–3th c. BC in the in the Great Hungarian Plain its system of relations and its relationship with local and neighbouring cultural entities still raises a number of questions. Thanks to the regular field works and researches we can have a more detailed picture of the La Tène period of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County. During a field walk and metal detecting a new face-bead shard come to light from east of Szolnok at Szajol-Széle site II. This fragment is probably the most southern occurrence of this time of beads at the moment. From this aspect it is necessary to publish this freshly occurred archaeological find. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Indogermanische Forschungen: Zeitschrift für Indogermanistik und allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft 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.)

Much progress has been made in the last 200 years with regard to understanding the origins and mechanisms of sound change. It is hypothesized that many sound changes originate in biomechanical constraints on speech production or in the misperception of sounds. These production and perception pressures explain a wide range of sound changes across the world's languages, yet we also know that sound change is not inevitable. For example, similar phonological structures have undergone change in many languages yet remained stable in others. In this study, we examine how typologically unusual contrasts are maintained in the face of intense pressures, in order to uncover the potential biomechanical, perceptual, and sociolinguistic factors that facilitate the maintenance of typologically unusual contrasts. We focus on secondary articulation contrasts in Scottish Gaelic rhotics, triangulating auditory, acoustic, and articulatory data in order to better understand the maintenance of contrast in the face of multidimensional typological challenges. Here, individual-level articulatory strategies are combined with contextual prosodic information in order to maintain acoustic and auditory distinctiveness across three rhotic phonemes. We highlight the need to more comprehensively consider typologically unusual and minority languages in order to test the limits of generalizations about crosslinguistic phonetic typology.* [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Lithuanica is the property of Institute of the Lithuanian Language 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.)

This new book by Xavier Delamarre is the first volume of the dictionary of Gaulish nominal bases. Since onomastics is the source for most of its data, this book is of interest for the readers of this journal. Apart from Gaulish, the author considers data of other ancient Celtic languages such as Lepontic, Celtiberian, or British (Brittonic). The review surveys methodological aspects underlying this research, and particularly a number of questions related to suffixation in relation to the most recent research on Celtic morphology and word-formation. Undoubtedly, the book is the most complete collection of Gaulish onomastics up to date, although a number of missing forms can be brought forward, which is to be expected due to the amount of data at our disposal, and selection of several examples as Celtic should be questioned. The text contains etymological comments, and some of them appear in the book for the first time which deserves special attention. The dictionary is a very important contribution to Celtic studies in general, and to Gaulish onomastics in particular.

Centring on embodiment, gendered eco-spiritual responses to nature, enchantment and environmental crises in the Anthropocene, this paper explores engagement with nature as a spiritual experience and resource through 'Celtic' Christian prayer walks in the Isle of Man. Web-based and printed materials for the walks are analysed for references to nature and environmental responsibility, and the complexities of personal, gendered and theological relation to nature and the environment are explored through participants' accounts. The analysis is attentive to participants professing Christian faith and institutional affiliation as well as those without affiliation or faith, and to their gendered experience. Themes identified include nature-inspired 'Celtic' spirituality; personal relation to the non-human (the divine, nature and nature-as-divine); the landscape as a liminal 'thin place'; and social and environmental responsibility. The paper concludes by signalling the potential for bridging between pilgrimage-centred enchantment and eco-spirituality in order to mobilise engagement with and for the environment in the Anthropocene, including environmental conservation activities, lobbying or protest. Whilst eschewing gendered stereotypes, empirical findings evidence gendered patterns of engagement and responses to different expressions of spirituality. Attention to these differences could facilitate the engaging and mobilising of different cohorts of pilgrims with environmental agendas, inspiring personal and collective environmental action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The undoubtedly Gaulish personal name Loucita, attested in the Norico-Pannonian onomastic area, is particularly interesting from the point of view of its word formation. Unambiguous parallels for such a derivative are difficult to find in Celtic onomastic material, the only possible but very uncertain candidate being a Goidelic river name Ἀργίτα, recorded by Ptolemy. Outside of Celtic, the name of a Germanic seeress Vel(a)eda, if it goes back to *u̯elētā- (which is a probable but not the only possibility), is a potential case in point, which would then unavoidably imply that Loucita < *leu̯k-ēt-ā- must somehow be based on the oblique stem with a generalised length of the suffixal vowel (*leu̯k-ēt-) taken over from the nominative singular, where it was inherited. Since the category of lexicalised, synchronically unproductive dethematic *-et-stems in Celtic typically displays exactly that phenomenon, this etymological interpretation cannot be dismissed as ultimately improbable. Another reasonable possibility, however, would be to start from a feminine abstract *lou̯k-i-/*leu̯k-i- ‘brightness, lustre’ (itself based on the thematic possessive adjective *leu̯k-ó- by external derivation), to which Loucita could then represent a barbātus-type adjectival derivative *leu̯k-i-to- ‘having lustre,’ exactly parallel to the type seen in Indo-Iranian colour adjectives. It is argued that the latter type probably does not represent thematic possessives of t-abstracts to i-stem adjectives but, contrary to the communis opinion, rather goes back to to-possessives of i-stem abstracts. Under both analyses, however, the name is an important addition to the Proto-Indo-European type of derivative in *-ito-, so far unambiguously identified only within Indo-Iranian.

«Pangur Bán» is probably the best know poem in Celtic studies, and a poem that tends to become increasingly more popular to audiences outside of Ireland. However, the anonymous, medieval poem has been cherished throughout history for a wide range of poetic, philosophical, intellectual and educational reasons. To inquire into the longevity and popularity of a marginal gloss on his cat by an Irish monk in a German monastery in the ninth century seems appropriate at a time when contemporary literature and applied hermeneutics of all kinds tend to dominate the literary discourses. This essay relates the historical poem to its many translations, for example by Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney, and current literary discourses. Why has this enigmatic jeu d’esprit been translated so frequently and why are these translations important? This essay argues that «Anonymous: Myself and Pangur», Muldoon’s version of «Pangur Bán», can be read as a prismatic poem for postmodernist concerns, in his own poetry and in recent theories.

Double nasal presents—presents containing both a nasal infix and a nasal suffix—are found in Greek (type λιμπάνω 'leave'), Celtic (e.g., OIr. ro·finnadar (< *wind-n-) 'get to know'), and Germanic (Go. du-ginnan (← *-gunnan < *gund-n-) 'begin'). It is argued here that all such formations have a common origin. The starting point was the nasal-infix present of the root *ghed- 'grasp', which originally had the form *gh(n̥)néd- / *ghn̥d-´. With the reinterpretation of the root as *ghend- , the strong stem of the nasal-infix present was remade to *ghn̥d-né / ó- , and in the post-IE period the pattern was extended to other nasal-infix presents (*lin(é)kw- → *linkw-né / ó- , *u̯in(é)d- → *u̯ind-né / ó- , etc.). A corollary of the analysis is that the -a- of the Greek and Armenian presents in *-ane / o- (< *-n̥ne / o-) is epenthetic, and that the absence of a nasal in the root syllable of Arm. lkʿanem , gtanem , etc. is secondary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article the Slavic term *ǫb(ъ)lъ ‘source, spring; well’ is analyzed from the point of view of its word‑formation and etymology. The discussion of preceding etymologies leads to the formulation of a new etymology, based on the internal analysis of *ǫ‑b(ъ)lъ ‘source, spring; well’ as *n̥‑bl̥ o ‘unmuddy’ = ‘clear (water)’. The identified cognates in Baltic *balā, Germanic *pōla‑, and possibly Continental Celtic *bolā, all ‘swamp, marsh’, imply the initial, ‘non‑Indo- ‑European’, *b‑. Finally, it is tested, if the etymon could represent an extension in ‑l‑ from the root *gu̯ ebh ‑ ‘marsh, swamp’ in the zero‑grade of ablaut. The answer is ‘yes’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

«Pangur Bán» is probably the best know poem in Celtic studies, and a poem that tends to become increasingly more popular to audiences outside of Ireland. However, the anonymous, medieval poem has been cherished throughout history for a wide range of poetic, philosophical, intellectual and educational reasons. To inquire into the longevity and popularity of a marginal gloss on his cat by an Irish monk in a German monastery in the ninth century seems appropriate at a time when contemporary literature and applied hermeneutics of all kinds tend to dominate the literary discourses. This essay relates the historical poem to its many translations, for example by Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney, and current literary discourses. Why has this enigmatic jeu d'esprit been translated so frequently and why are these translations important? This essay argues that «Anonymous: Myself and Pangur», Muldoon's version of «Pangur Bán», can be read as a prismatic poem for postmodernist concerns, in his own poetry and in recent theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A noun *york- has been reconstructed as the PIE name of the 'roedeer'. This paper offers a review of the sometimes unexpected history of this root-noun and its derivatives in those daughter languages that have kept them: Greek ζορκ-, δορκ- (1), Celtic *york-, *yurk- (2), probably Germanic *raiχ- (3), possibly Indic ś-ya- (4). Unrelated to *york-, on the other hand, are Armenian ors 'hunt, game' (8), and probably Latin hircus (5), Luwian irwa- (6), Tocharian yerkwantala* (7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work deals with a number of arguably misinterpreted names found on inscriptions from Emona in Central Slovenia. While many of them have been recently attributed to an Indo-European, otherwise unknown dialect (associated with onomastic data referred to as “Iggian” or “North Adriatic”), the author shows that contact linguistics and Celtic dialectology are instrumental in their correct analysis, and that they all can be classified as either Eastern Gaulish or Italic. In the author’s view, existence of such linguistic or onomastic systems as “Iggian” or “North-Adriatic” is uneconomic and based on alleged phonetic and morphological features that remain unconvincing. An in-depth analysis of the names, including some novel readings of several Pannonian inscriptions, reveal that they are often the product of scribal misunderstandings or lack of experience, which can be explained based on the achievements of historical and typological phonetics and morphophonology in a wide Indo-European perspective. Historically, the studied names bear witness to the impact of late Venetic migrations to synchronically Celtic-speaking urban nuclei: the analysis shows that the Venetic layer seems to be superficial in Emona and mostly consists of forms attested elsewhere, which are occasionally reflected as they would be perceived by native speakers of a Celtic language. As for the names of Gaulish ancestry attested in Emona, they seem to have been transmitted by Gauls who were literate in Latin and well aware of the standardised transcription of Gaulish names. The analysis reveals regular differences between the scribal traditions of Ig and Šmarata, which, in their turn, support the phonetical and morphological argumentation.

Using etymological methods, the present study has identified five Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies. These five etymologies form a rhyme correspondence. This regular sound change validates the etymological connection between Sinitic and Uralic. The Finnic term for 'sky' is among these five etymologies. It is demonstrated that this word root should be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.

York, a cathedral city in the north of England, was the Eburacum or Colonia Eburacensis of Roman Britain. Its name has usually been explained from Irish iubhar ‘yew tree’ (or alternatively from Welsh efwr ‘hogweed’) and so ‘place where yew trees grow’; or else as containing the British(-Latin) personal name Eburus plus the suffix -aco-, and so ‘estate of Eburus’ (with commentators wavering between the two). The author provides an overview of the etymological interpretations suggested in literarure and adduces arguments in favour of the second explanation. The yew tree (Taxus baccata) is typically found in dry woodland and scrub, often on chalk. It hates wet soil, which York has in plenty, for it occupies a low-lying site at the junction of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. Damp and subject to flooding, York is no place for yew trees. A direct link with yews may be rejected and a sense ‘estate of Eburus’ accepted with confidence, even if Eburus (somewhat confusingly) itself meant ‘he who lives by a yew tree’. The implications of topographical factors for the name of York may be recalled on other dubious etymologies in Watts’s 2004 dictionary, including ‘port with deep water’ for Dunwich, ‘water, pool’ for London, ‘fort of a breast-shaped hill’ for Manchester, or ‘fork, watershed’ for the Isle of Wight.

The paper focuses on the probability of the Celtic substratum hypothesis in the toponymy of North Holland. Agreeing that the most north-western tip of the Netherlands is an unlikely place to look for Celtic toponyms, the author suggests that the name Huisduinen relates to the same group of names of which Heusden is the most common representative, and which appears to have a Celtic etymology. Thus making it a tempting task to look at a few other names in the same area. As the area lost most of its population in the 4th century AD and became repopulated in the 5th century, language shift offers a possible scenario for a change from Celtic to Germanic with remnants of a Celtic substratum surviving up to the present day. In the same period, the landscape involved saw radical changes as well. In earlier publications it has been suggested that the medieval name Uxalia may be Celtic. Here it is suggested that this name may originally refer to the present-day island of Texel and not — as it later did — to the neighbouring island of Vlieland. A Celtic etymology is also proposed for the names Helsdeur and Den Helder, which — if accepted — have related etymologies. The name Helsdeur refers to the deepest part of the strait between the mainland of the province North Holland and the island of Texel. The lack of early attestations of this name is explained by suggesting its probable taboo status. This hypothesis is supported by a series of relevant examples of taboo place names in the maritime context.

This article explores the poetry of François Jaffrennou, who published under the druidic pseudonym Taldir ab Hernin, as a case study in decolonized multilingualism. Close readings of Taldir's writing in Breton, Welsh and French reveal the pressures of negotiating a hybrid Celtic-French identity, as he affirms his Celticity while maintaining a careful relationship with France. Taldir criticizes the French state in his Welsh texts, whereas in French and Breton his critique is more guarded, subtly codified. The Celtic space which emerges here is full of tensions, as Taldir works both within and against the impulse to reconcile Celtic and French identities. I argue that being provincially Other in France requires a delicate balancing act, a special way of being French. I also contend that to work on the local is to work on the global, looking beyond regionalist and postcolonial approaches to Breton writing in an effort to dismantle the monolingualizing tendencies of French Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay uses Samuel Johnson’s characterization of Gaelic culture as an essentially airborne phenomenon as the starting point for a wide-ranging consideration of the links between atmospheric and Celtic discourses during the Romantic era. This period has been deemed foundational to the literary ‘appearance’ of air and the conceptual formation of Celticity, but these two cultural phenomena have rarely been considered in tandem. Beginning with a discussion of the atmospheric ideas that underpin the Poems of Ossian’s infamous mists, the essay argues that critics have largely ignored the complexity of Macpherson’s medicalized ecologies of air. The essay then moves on to consider the development of comparable cloudy symbolism during the Welsh cultural revival of the 1790s, when overcast skies became an organising metaphor used to express the cultural benightedness of Wales. The often-unexamined cliché of ‘Celtic mistiness’ is revealed as a vital metaphor for the allure and imperfection of intercultural mediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the significance of the Cornish setting in Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes. Given a long tradition of marginalizing the region in literary and cultural histories, Hardy's use of Cornwall in his writing is more than just an incidental product of his personal experiences. This analysis illuminates Cornwall's significance in the Victorian popular imagination as a seemingly barbarous, uncivilized space, arguing that Hardy's familiarity with a haunted Cornwall influences his use of Gothic tropes in the novel. Hardy's Cornwall is a distinct region with a distinct history, part of but separate from England. An understanding of contemporaneous cultural changes in Cornwall at the time--with which Hardy would have been familiar--enriches and informs our understanding of the author's use of genre and regionality in this novel and in his wider oeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now commonplace to see surnames written in the Irish language in Ireland, yet there is no online resource for checking the standard spelling and grammar of Irish-language surnames. We propose a data structure for handling Irish-language surnames which comprises bilingual (Irish–English) clusters of surname forms. We present the first open, data-driven linguistic database of common Irish-language surnames, containing 664 surname clusters, and a method for deriving Irish-language inflected forms. Unlike other Irish surname dictionaries, our aim is not to list variants or explain origins, but rather to provide standard Irish-language surname forms via the web for use in the educational, cultural, and public spheres, as well as in the library and information sciences. The database can be queried via a web application, and the dataset is available to download under an open licence. The web application uses a comprehensive list of surname forms for query expansion. We envisage the database being applied to name authority control in Irish libraries to provide for bilingual access points.

The relevance of the research is determined by the growing interest to modern manifestations of Celtic culture, the desire of almost half of the population of Scotland to gain independence and the increasing attractiveness of Scotland as a tourist destination. As a result, the traditional symbols are viewed not only as trade and ethno-territorial brands, but also as social and ethnoculturally relevant imperatives. To achieve the objectives of defning the factors that influenced the transition of the kilt into an informal symbol of “Scottishness” it was imperative to consider the concept of Scottish identity and the role of the kilt in constructing its various forms: cultural, ethnic and national. The analysis of the existing approaches to studying identity and defnitions of the concept suggested by psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and experts in cultural studies allows to conclude that the kilt as one of the informal symbols of Scotland can be considered as a symbol of both cultural and national identity: the latter is explained by the fact that Scotland has such forms of statehood as autonomy, a coat of arms, a flag, an anthem, its own parliament and languages – Scots (Anglo-Scottish) and Gaelic. The tradition of wearing the kilt by the representatives of the royal family, popularizing “Scottishness” by means of the tourist and entertainment industries makes it possible to speak about a new phenomenon – the perception of the kilt as the symbol of both Scottish and British culture.

The article comprises brief appreciations about the importance and contribution of the Miniature Art to the development of the culture, art and civilization of the Middle Ages. The small Celtic island – Ireland has influenced in a great manner the European creations and the miniature manuscripts from the 6th – 9th century. As surprisingly as it may seem, the majority of the manuscripts are essentially dominated by the abstract approach, which is close to the non-figurative creations. The testimony of this approach is represented by the Irish ornaments of Celtic origin, that are unique, complicated, non-repeatable, and full of unforeseen, which prove an unending fantasy and a great technical virtuosity.

The transition from Gaulish to Breton has been much discussed. Recent publications have shown that Brythonic and Gaulish hardly differed, ‘similes sunt’ according to Tacite, and Caesar before him. It is possible to draw a parallel between Breton, Cornish and Welsh in relation to insular Celtic on the one hand and the Romance languages in relation to Latin on the other. The Gaulish words we know of (around a thousand words plus compounds) can all be found if not in Neo-Celtic, Breton and its sister languages then in Gaelic. One well-known example is the Breton brug (continental Celtic) and the Welsh grug, both meaning ‘heather’, which evolved from the same *uroica (in Irish fraoch). Breton almost universally features the Celtic in S (se), an dra-se (that), and in H (he-, henn), an dra-he (this & that), the Brythonic or insular variant of the same root.

In an examination of contemporary Pagan pilgrimage in Ireland, based on longitudinal ethnographic research, this article identifies and analyzes different cultural processes at work, focusing on the sacralization of the landscape through ritualization and re-storying. Correlations and differences between modern Pagan pilgrimage and the popular Roman Catholic pilgrimage tradition are identified since the way in which modern Pagan pilgrimage manifests is most similar to traditional Catholic site-specific pilgrimage. Contemporary Pagan activities and discourses are contextualized within Irish history and within other meaningful layers constructed over time in relation to Ireland's sacred landscape. Counterheritagization processes and the contestation of meanings connected to pilgrimage sites is discussed as regards the process of Celticization in how a Celtic past is reactivated in the present by journeying to, and engaging with, significantly reclaimed and "re-storied" sites. For this new religious movement, the land itself plays a vital role as a dynamic and active space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the traditional etymology of Latin sāpō as a loanword from the Germanic words for 'soap' is phonologically not possible. Instead, it proposes a phonologically regular explanation: a loanword in both Germanic and Latin from the common Celtic-Germanic substrate (with Gaulish transmission in the case of Latin). Dieser Beitrag argumentiert dafür, dass die traditionelle Etymologie von lat. sāpō als Lehnwort aus den germanischen Wörtern für 'Seife' lautlich nicht möglich ist. Stattdessen wird eine phonologisch regelmäßige Lösung vorgeschlagen: eine Entlehnung sowohl im Germanischen als auch im Lateinischen aus dem gemeinsamen keltisch-germanischen Substrat (im Falle des Lateinischen mit gallischer Vermittlung). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous slag samples and a piece of iron bloom with slag from excavations of Celtic settlements (La Téne C and D) at Ordacsehi, Szilvásvárad and Jászberény (Hungary) were examined. The main objectives of the investigations were to study the material and structural properties of the slag specimens, the definition of the metallurgical functions of the different pieces of slag. Analytical techniques are wet chemical analysis (ICP-OES complemented with carbon determination, moreover using titration for separating the Fe2+ and Fe3+), textural-chemical investigations with SEM-EDS microanalysis and mineralogical analysis with XRD. Chemical investigations can be supplemented by ED-XRF. Most of the examined slags can be originated from the purification hammering process, where in an oxidizing atmosphere intended to separate the slag from the iron after reheating the bloom, or the forging of the iron tool. Some of the slag samples with fine dendrites remind metallurgical slag, although there have not been found traces of bloomery at the excavation sites. The examined slaggy bloom-fragment interlocks to the beginning of the technological line of forging as the first (by)product after the smelting formed in the bloomery furnace. Most of the examined slag samples are by-products of smithy workshop working in buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper aims to examine the acquisition of phonetics and phonology in the context of Scottish Gaelic immersion schooling. I explore the effect of differing home language backgrounds among primary school children on the production of laterals and stop consonants. Design/methodology/approach: Acoustic analysis was performed on Gaelic and English speech data collected from children in Gaelic Medium Education in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Data and analysis: Word list data were collected from 18 children aged 7–11 and analyzed using measurements of formants and duration of stop phases. Half of the sample had little or no exposure to Gaelic in the home, while the other half had differing degrees of family input. Statistical analysis was conducted using Conditional Inference Trees. Findings and conclusions: This study finds that any initial differences between children who enter Gaelic Medium Education as fluent speakers and those who do not are leveled out by late primary school, at least in terms of pronunciation. I suggest that leveled varieties of minority languages can develop in pre-adolescence in peer group settings such as minority language education. Originality: This study is the first to examine phonetic and phonological acquisition in Gaelic-English bilingual children. It is one of a small number of studies to examine bilingual phonological acquisition in immersion schooling. The study supports recent research exploring the development of peer group varieties among young minority language speakers. Significance and implications: This research aims to expand traditional models that consider the extent of exposure to two languages as key in predicting phonetic and phonological production. I suggest that the impact of the peer group and the context of language use are also significant factors. Results suggest potential development of education varieties of Gaelic. These findings have implications for future revitalization strategies for minority languages across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substrate words in Romanian are assumed to be Dacian, Thracian or Balkanic. At closer inspection, many of them have cognates in Italy, which rules out a Balkanic origin; or Northern Italy and France, which indicates a Celtic origin.

In this paper we investigate category-specific effects through the lens of Welsh mutation. Smith (2011) and Moreton et al. (2017) show that English distinguishes nouns and proper nouns in an experimental blending task. Here we show that Welsh distinguishes nouns, verbs, personal names, and place names in the mutation system. We demonstrate these effects experimentally in a translation task designed to elicit mutation intuitions and in several corpus studies. In addition, we show that these effects correlate with lexical frequency. Deeper statistical analysis and a review of the English data suggests that frequency is a more explanatory factor than part of speech in both languages. We therefore argue that these category-specific effects can be reduced to lexical frequency effects.