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Celtic influence on Old English: phonological and phonetic evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

PETER SCHRIJVER
PETER SCHRIJVER*
Affiliation:
Celtic Languages and Culture, Department of Modern Languages, University of Utrecht, Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The [email protected]
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Abstract

It has generally been assumed that Celtic linguistic influence on Old English is limited to a few marginal loanwords. If a language shift had taken place from Celtic to Old English, however, one would expect to find traces of that in Old English phonology and (morpho)syntax. In this article I argue that (1) the way in which the West Germanic sound system was reshaped in Old English strongly suggests the operation of a hitherto unrecognized substratum; (2) that phonetic substratum is strongly reminiscent of Irish rather than British Celtic; (3) the Old Irish phonetic−phonological system provides a more plausible model for reconstructing the phonetics of pre-Roman Celtic in Britain than the British Celtic system. The conclusion is that there is phonetic continuity between pre-Roman British Celtic and Old English, which suggests the presence of a pre-Anglo-Saxon population shifting to Old English.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 13 , Issue 2: Re-evaluating the Celtic hypothesis , July 2009 , pp. 193 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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