| Re .0: My memory is not of the best at the moment, but I seem to
remember that it's just a linguistical way to make a distinction
between Brittonic and Goidelic Celts (see a response I put around
topic 1 in this file), separating the Celtic tongues by the fact
that some roots which included a P in one branch of the linguistic
familly had a Q instead in the other branch. I wouldn't swear it
but I think that the P are the Brittons and the Q are the Goidels
(or Gaels), could anybody confirm it, please?
Denis.
|
| Yes, I've read that before - I think in a small blue book called
the Irish Language by D. Greene.
Interesting trivia:
Scottish and Irish had the same written langaguage in the 1700's.
A person in Ulster is more likely to understand a Scottish speaker
than his counterpart in Munster.
One of the closest non-celtic langauges to Irish is ... Lithuanian.
Lithuanian and Irish are both relatively old languages (compared
to English). They share many common Indo-European roots.
Finnish, Hungarian, and Turkish are suprisingly close to one another.
They are all in the Uralic language family.
Enough... :-)
|
| Re .2: Lithuanian and Irish share quite a few common roots but the
same is true of most Indo-European languages. Lithuanian is a member
of the Balto-Slavic familly which is not very closely related to
the Celtic familly. It is among the Indo-European languages the
one which has evolved the least from the "original Indo-European"
(many linguists now think that there was no such a language, more
probably related dialects, a language could probably not be well
defined and bounded at that time), meaning the smallest amount of
linguistic evolution from the common roots. It also happens that
the original Indo-European area (as well as it has been possible
to define it) is in Lusace (sp? - this is the French spelling),
between the Oder and the Vistule (sp?) not far from Lithuania.
For Hungarian and Finnish, they're members of the Finno-Ougrian
familly, along with the Lap, Esthonian, Mordve (sp?), Tcheremisse,
Vogoul, etc..., while Turkish is a member of the Turco-Mongol familly.
These 2 famillies, which are quite different from each other, are
sometime grouped in an Uralo-Altaic group, but the linguists don't
agree all about the definition or the existance of such a group.
I hope this wasn't boring.
Denis.
|
|
Let me add my two cents.
P and Q celtic are distinctions made by the use of q (sometimes
spelt with a "c") and a p for the same sound. The example I am familiar
with is:
Irish (gaelic) = mac = son of usually seen as Mac, Mc, M'
Welsh (cymraeg) = map = son of usually seen as 'ap
Welsh is an English word meaning foreigner, an early example of
misuse of a work like the Korean word for foreigner = Gook.
Q Celtic is believed to be older that P Celtic.
Scotch and Irish are both origionally Gaelic, as the scots came
from Ulster. Scots is a latin word given to the people of northern
Ireland by the Romans it means raider.
thank you.
Kevin
|
| Re: .4
>Welsh is an English word meaning foreigner, an early example of
>misuse of a work like the Korean word for foreigner = Gook.
Being Korean myself, the Korean word "gook" means country or nation.
So an American would be called a "mi-gook sah rahm" or "mi-gook een"
which translates as "beautiful-country person".
Wook (who_wants_to_kiss_the_Blarney_Stone_someday)
|