Proto-Celtic, orCommon Celtic, is the reconstructed ancestralproto-language of all knownCeltic languages, and a descendant ofProto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partlyreconstructed through thecomparative 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 theUrnfield culture and particularly with theHallstatt culture. Celtic languages share common features withItalic languages that are not found in other branches of Indo-European, suggesting the possibility of an earlierItalo-Celtic linguistic unity.
Proto-Celtic is currently being reconstructed through the comparative method by relying on later Celtic languages. ThoughContinental Celtic presents much substantiation for Proto-Celticphonology, and some for itsmorphology, recorded material is too scanty to allow a secure reconstruction ofsyntax, though some complete sentences are recorded in the ContinentalGaulish andCeltiberian. So, the main sources for reconstruction come fromInsular Celtic languages with the oldestliterature found inOld Irish[1] andMiddle Welsh,[2] dating back to authors flourishing in the 6th century AD.
Proto-Celtic is usually dated to theLate 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 BC to 1st century BC); otherwise, descendant languages might have developed their own, unrelated words for the metal. However, Schumacher[4] and Schrijver[5] suggest a date for Proto-Celtic as early as the 13th century BC, the time of theCanegrate culture, in northwest Italy, and theUrnfield culture in Central Europe, implying that the divergence may have already started in the Bronze Age.[why?]
The phonological changes fromProto-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.
The following sound changes are shared with theItalic languages in particular, and are cited in support of theItalo-Celtic hypothesis.[7]
Dybo's rule: long close vowels are shortened (or a laryngeal is lost) before resonant + stressed vowel. Note that something like Dybo's rule seems to have also operated in Germanic (Old English wer < *wiHró-).[8]
īR´ / ? *iHR´ > iR´
ūR´ / ? *uHR´ > uR´
Possibly, post-consonantal laryngeals are lost when before pre-tonic close vowels:
CHiC´ > CiC´
CHuC´ > CuC´
Development of initialstress, following the previous two changes. But note that this seems to have been an areal feature, shared, for example with the Indo-EuropeanGermanic languages and the non-Indo-EuropeanEtruscan language.[9]
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 (R̩D > 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). But Matasovic points out that: A) this change may have occurred late in Celtic; B) it seems not to have operated on some words in Irish; and C) a very similar assimilation (though in reverse) also occurred in Germanic.[10]
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 *m̩, *n̩, the result is Proto-Italic *əm, *ən (> Latinem ~im,en ~in).
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 merges into *b.
Aspirated stops lose their aspiration and merge with the voiced stops (except that thiscounterfeeds the previous change, so *gʷʰ > *gʷ doesn't result in a merger; that is, the change*gʷʰ > *gʷ must crucially happenafter the sound changegʷ > b has been completed):[11]
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:
l̩T > liT
r̩T > riT
Epenthetic *a is inserted before the remaining syllabic resonants:
m̩ > am
n̩ > an
l̩ > al
r̩ > 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)
Eska has recently proposed that PC stops allophonically manifestsimilarly to those in English. Voiceless stop phonemes/tk/ were aspirated word-initially except when preceded by/s/, hence aspirate allophones[tʰkʰ]; unaspirated voiced stops/bdɡ/ were devoiced to[ptk] word-initially.[14][15]
This allophony may be reconstructed to PC from the following evidence:[14][15]
Modern Celtic languages likeWelsh, Breton, and all modernGoidelic languages have such plosive aspiration and voice allophony already attested. (But there is no trace of this in Gaulish.)
Several old Celtic languages (such asOld Irish,Old Welsh, andLepontic) used letters for voiceless stop phonemes to write both voiceless stop phonemes and their voiced counterparts, especially non-word-initially. (But in the case of Lepontic, this is because the alphabet was derived from Etruscan, which has no voice contrasts in plosives.)
The CeltiberianLuzaga's Bronze has the curious spelling of an accusative determinersdam, where thed is clearly meant to spell[t]. This implies that Celtiberian/d/ had a voiceless allophone[t].
Proto-Indo-European (PIE)voiced aspirate stops *bʰ, *dʰ, *gʰ/ǵʰ, merge with *b, *d, *g/ǵ in PC. The voiced aspiratelabiovelar *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 Welshben, but PIE*gʷʰn̥- 'to kill, wound' became Old Irishgonaid and Welshgwanu.
PIE *p is lost in PC, apparently going through the stages *ɸ (possibly a stage *[pʰ])[14] and *h (perhaps seen in the nameHercynia if this is of Celtic origin) before being completely lost word-initially and between vowels. Next to consonants, PC *ɸ underwent different changes: theclusters *ɸs and *ɸt became *xs and *xt respectively already in PC. PIE *sp- became Old Irishs (f- when lenited, exactly as for PIE *sw-) and Brythonicf; whileSchrijver 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 inGermanic, and the same exception occurred again in theHigh 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
InGaulish and theBrittonic languages, the Proto-Indo-European*kʷ phoneme becomes a newp sound. Thus, Gaulishpetuar[ios],Welshpedwar "four", butOld Irishcethair andLatinquattuor. 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 achain shift.
The termsP-Celtic andQ-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 ancientContinental Celtic languages. The unusual shared innovations among theInsular Celtic languages are often also presented as evidence against a P-vs Q-Celtic division, but they may instead reflect a commonsubstratum 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:
Latinpresbyter "priest" > early form of word seen inOld Welshpremter primter > Primitive Irishqrimitir > Old Irishcruimther.
Gaelicpóg "kiss" was a later borrowing (from the second word of the Latin phraseosculum pacis "kiss of peace") at a stage wherep was borrowed directly asp, without substitutingc.
Themorphological structure ofnouns andadjectives demonstrates no arresting alterations from the parent language. Proto-Celtic is believed to have had nouns in threegenders, threenumbers 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:[16] while Old Irish may have only five, the evidence from Continental Celtic is considered[by whom?] rather unambiguous despite appeals to archaic retentions ormorphological leveling. These cases werenominative,vocative,accusative,dative,genitive,ablative,locative andinstrumental.
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.
However, Celtiberian shows -o- stem genitives ending in-o rather than-ī:aualo "[son] of Avalos".[17] Also note that the genitive singular does not match Proto-Indo-European's-osyo, which would have yielded-osjo.
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
As in the masculine paradigm, the genitive singular does not match Proto-Indo-European's-osyo, which would have yielded-osjo.
Before the*-s of the nominative singular, a velar consonant wasfricated to*-x :*rīg- "king" >*rīxs. Likewise, final*-ddevoiced to*-t-:*druwid- "druid" >*druwits.[18]
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.
^Remade as*mu in the prehistory of Irish by analogy to*tu.
^Remade as*mowe in the prehistory of Irish by analogy to*towe.
The following third-person pronouns in Proto-Celtic may also be reconstructed.[21]: 62 [19]: 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
Forms of the masculine singular relative pronoun *yo- can be found in the firstBotorrita plaque: The formio-s in line 10 is the nominative singular masculine of the relative pronoun from Proto-Indo-European*yo- (Sanskritya-, Greekhos), which shows up in Old Irish only as the aspiration for leniting relative verb forms. Line 7 has the accusative singulario-m and the dative singulario-mui of the same root.[22]
Four inflection classes for positive-degree adjectives are known. Most adjectives belonged to theo-ā class, in which the adjectives inflected like masculineo-stems, neutero-stems and feminineā-stems when agreeing with nouns of their respective genders. A much smaller minority of adjectives werei- andu-stems.[23]
Consonant-stem adjectives also existed but were vanishingly rare, with only relics in Old Irish liketé "hot" <*teɸents.
The comparative degree was formed on most adjectives by attaching*-yūs to the adjective stem. For instance,*senos "old" would have a comparative*senyūs "older". However, someCaland system adjectives instead had a comparative ending in*-is, which was then extended to*-ais. For example,*ɸlitanos "wide" had a comparative*ɸletais.[24]
The superlative was formed by simply attaching*-isamos to the adjective stem. In some adjectives where the stem ends in*s, the suffix is truncated to*-(s)amos byhaplology.[24] Thus,*senos "old" would have a superlative*senisamos "oldest" but*trexsnos (stem*trexs-) would have a superlative*trexsamos.
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:
Proto-Celtic possessed a diverse set of ways to form present stems. They can be roughly be divided into two broad categories of athematic and thematic.
Thematic verbs feature a connecting vowel between the present stem and the basic primary endings. This vowel is-o- in the first-person and third-person plural and-e- in the third-person singular and second-person forms. The first-person singular of these verbs end in*-ū.
Athematic verbs feature no such connecting vowel, and their 1st-person singular forms end in*-mi instead of*-ū.
These two inflectional categories can themselves be subdivided based on the means of derivation from a verb root via a combination of rootablaut grades and suffixes. These derivational classes include:[27]: 36–47
In Proto-Celtic, the Indo-Europeannasal 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. fromaniṭ roots). Inseṭ verbs, the nasal appears at the end of the present stem, while inaniṭ-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.
However, the origin of the invariant root vowel in-o- in*CewC- roots in Old Irish is unclear. Usually, it is held that the consonantism in these verbs was generalized in favour of the plural stem*CunC- in Old Irish. One would expect alternation betweeno in the 1st- and 3rd- person plural and-u- elsewhere in the present; but for both contexts Old Irish only attests-o-.
The following verbs can be reconstructed in this class:
On the other hand, theseṭ 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.[28]
Theseṭ nasal-infix presents were further subdivided into subcategories based on the root-final laryngeal. Traditionally two subclasses have long been accepted, the*h₁ subclass (cited with a-ni- suffix) and*h₂ (cited with a-na- suffix).*h₃ nasal-infixed verbs were often leveled to act like*h₂ verbs, being also cited with a-na- suffix; the only original difference between the two would have been the 3rd-person plural ending in*-nonti instead of*-nanti.
The nasal-infixseṭ verbs in Proto-Celtic underwent multiplelevelings. First, the suffixal vowel in the plural forms was harmonized so that they would all be the short counterpart to the vowel in the singular forms. Then all the long vowels in the singular were shortened to make the suffix vowel identical in quality and length across all person-number combinations.[29]: 11–23
Evolution of Proto-Celtic ablaut in the nasal infix forseṭ roots
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:[27]: 62–67
The Old Irish t-preterite was traditionally assumed to be a divergent evolution from the s-preterite, but that derivation was challenged byJay Jasanoff, who alleges that they were instead imperfects ofNarten presents. Either derivation requires Narten ablaut anyway, leading to a stem voweli in the singular ande 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.[30]
Many suffixless preterite formations featuredreduplication. The nature of the reduplication depends on the structure of the root.[27]: 68–79
Proto-Celtic suffixless preterites
Root
Meaning
Shape
Preterite stem
Notes
*keng-
"to step"
Other root types
*ke-kong-
Classic Indo-European reduplication, where the root is put in theo-grade and the prefixed reduplicant is formed with the first consonant followed by*e.
*nigʷ-
"to wash"
*C(R)eiT-
*ni-noig-
In Proto-Celtic, roots with a semivowel (PIE*-y- or *-w-) before a non-laryngeal consonant have the reduplicant formed not with the first consonant of the root followed by*e, but instead the first consonant of the root followed by the semivowel. The root itself remains in theo-grade.
*duk-
"to lead, carry"
*C(R)euT-
*du-douk-
*gʷed-
"to pray"
*CeT-
*gʷād-
Roots ending in only a single stop as their coda generally merely change the stem vowel to*ā to form their preterite, without apparent reduplication. It originally spread from*ād- (from*h₁e-h₁od-), the preterite stem for*ed- "to eat".
*kerd-
"to throw, put"
*CeRT-
*kard-
A few roots in*CeRT- also had the*CeT- preterite formation applied to them but the long*ā was shortened due toOsthoff's law.
*dā-
"to give"
*C(C)eH-
*de-dū (singular) *ded(a)- (plural)
Laryngeal-final roots produced long vowels in the root syllable in the singular, but not in the plural (where the root was in the zero-grade instead). Usually the singular stem was generalized in Celtic, but in these cases the plural stem was generalized.
*kʷri-
"to buy"
*C(R)eiH-
*kʷi-kʷr-
The treatment for*CeH- roots was also extended to*C(R)eiH- roots. Due to the roots' semivowel, the reduplicant also contains the semivowel.
One major formation of the future in Celtic, thes-future, is possibly a descendant of the Proto-Indo-European(h₁)se-desiderative, withi-reduplication in multiple verbs. The Old Irisha- ands-future also come from here.[29] According to the philologist Calvin Watkins, the Old Irish s-future may derive from a type of Proto-Indo-European desiderative formation in which the initial consonant was reduplicated with an interveningi-vowel followed by a sigmatic suffix with the accent placed on the thematic vowel. For instance, Watkins reconstructs a pre-form*gʷʰigʷʰr̥- (from the root*gʷʰer-) as the ancestor of the Old Irish future formgéra.[31] The linguists Eugen Hill and Jay Jasanoff compare this formation to the reduplicated desiderative ofIndo-Iranian (e.g. Sanskritbíbhitsati) and reconstruct an originally thematic paradigm.[32][33] Hill, in particular, cites the Old Irish termrigid, for which he reconstructs a Proto-Celtic form*ri-rix-sū, itself perhaps—according to Hill—from pre-Proto-Celtic*ri-riǵ-sō.[34] The linguist Frederick Kortlandt further proposes that the reduplicated future of Old Irish may parallel several reduplicated forms in Italic, such as Oscanfifikus.[35] However, the Kortlandt alternatively suggests that the s-future and s-subjunctive ultimately derive from the Proto-Indo-European sigmatic aorist and reflect an athematic paradigm.[36] Kortlandt argues that this older athematic inflection was then replaced by secondary thematic endings. Thus, Kortlandt derives Old Irish future forms such asfessa from*wiweksom andgeiss from*gʷedses.[37] Moreover, Kortlandt notes the existence of a full-grade Old Irish future formgignethar and a zero-grade formgéna, which may parallel Sanskritjíjaniṣate andjíghāṃsati respectively. According to Kortlandt, the recessive accent of both forms and the full-grade of the former indicate an originally athematic inflection.[38] Jasanoff argues that whereas the Old Irish reduplicated future derives from a thematic source, the unreduplicated s-future is etymologically connected to theSabellic athematic future (e.g.Oscanfust), both of which—according to Jasanoff—hold athematic origins.[32] Another future formation, attested only inGaulish, is the-sye-desiderative.[citation needed]
Most verbs took one subjunctive suffix in Proto-Celtic,-(a)s-, followed by the thematic primary endings.[29] The subjunctive in Proto-Celtic was a descendant of the subjunctive of an Indo-European sigmatic thematic formation*-seti. The-ase- variant originated in roots that ended in alaryngeal 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.[29]
There were also two, possibly three verbs that did not use-(a)se-, instead straight-out taking thematised primary endings. They are:*bwiyeti "to be, exist" (subjunctive*bweti),*klinutor "to hear" (subjunctive*klowetor), and possibly*ɸalnati “to approach, drive” (subjunctive*ɸeleti).[39]
Primary subjunctive formations in Proto-Celtic generally use thee-grade of the verb root, even if the present stem uses the zero-grade.
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.[40]
The thematic deponent second-person singular imperative ending was*-eso. The-the in Old Irish is secondary.[41][19]: 140
The third-person imperative endings inInsular Celtic,Gaulish andCeltiberian have completely separate origins from each other. The Insular Celtic endings are derived from*-tou, *-ntou, Gaulish endings from*-tu, *-ntu, and the Celtiberian third-person imperative singular ending stems from*-tūd.[23]
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.[45]
The vast majority of reliably reconstructible lexical items in Proto-Celtic have goodIndo-European etymologies, unlike what is found in, for example, theGreek language—at least 90% according to Matasovic.[46] These include most of the items on theSwadesh list of basic vocabulary. But a few words that do not have Indo-European cognates, so may be borrowings from substrate or adstratePre-Indo-European languages, are also from basic vocabulary, including*bodyo- ‘yellow’ (though this has possible cognates in Italic),*kani "good," and*klukka "stone."[47] It is notable that fully 32 items have been reconstructed for Proto-Celtic with the meaning "fight."[48]
^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.ISBN3-85124-692-6.
^Matasovic, R. (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. p.7
^Salmon, Joseph (1992)Accentual Change and Language Contact Stanford UP
^Matasovic, R. (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. pp.11–12
^Cólera, Carlos Jordán (2007) "Celtiberian," e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies: Vol. 6, Article 17. p.759. Available at:https://dc.uwm.edu/ekeltoi/vol6/iss1/17 accessed June 21, 2023
^Welshadfer 'to restore' <*ate-ber-,cymeryd < obsoletecymer < M.W.cymeraf <*kom-ber- (with-yd taken from the verbal nouncymryd <*kom-britu).
^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. Gaulishduxtir (<*dugtīr). (Zair 2012: 161, 163).
^abcEska, Joseph F. (March 12, 2018). "Laryngeal Realism and the Prehistory of Celtic".Transactions of the Philological Society.116 (3). Wiley:320–331.doi:10.1111/1467-968x.12122.ISSN0079-1636.
^Pedersen, Holger (1913).Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen, 2. Band, Bedeutungslehre (Wortlehre). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.ISBN978-3-525-26119-4.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Untermann, J. (1967). "Die Endung des Genitiv singularis der o-Stämme im Keltiberischen." In W. Meid (ed.),Beiträge zur Indogermanistik und Keltologie, Julius Pokorny zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet, pp. 281–288. Innsbruck: Sprachwissenschaftliches Institut der Universität Innsbruck.
^Stokes, Whitley (November 1887). "Celtic Declension".Transactions of the Philological Society.20 (1):97–201.
^abcdeMcCone, 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.ISBN978-0-901519-46-7.
^Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940).A Grammar of Old Irish. Translated by Binchy, D. A; Bergin, Osborn. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.ISBN1-85500-161-6.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^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.ISBN978-0-901519-59-7.
^Matasovic, R.Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden: Brill. 2006. p. 436
^abcdStüber, Karin. "The morphology of Celtic". In Jared Klein; Brian Joseph; Matthias Fritz (eds.).Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 2. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1203–1217.
^abJasanoff, Jay (1991). "The origin of the Celtic comparative type OIr. tressa, MW trech 'stronger'".Die Sprache.34:171–189.
^Stefan Schumacher,Die keltischen Primärverben: Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon (Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität, 2004).
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