Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/malati
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This Proto-Celtic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence. |
Proto-Celtic[edit]
Alternative reconstructions[edit]
- *maleti (KPV)
Etymology[edit]
From Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind”). Various explanations exist for how Brythonic ended up with an a root vowel and Goidelic with an e.
- Watkins claimed that the Brythonic was from an athematic present (where a zero grade could be found), and the Goidelic would be from a thematic present. However, Schumacher points out that a laryngeal-final athematic present would be expected to produce a weak verb, for which no trace in Celtic exists.[1]
- Schumacher thinks that the Brythonic root variant was derived from the zero grade and was the sole present allomorph in Proto-Celtic. He further explains the Irish stem mel- as generated by some secondary analogical means, via some expectation that the present should be in the e-grade. Schumacher cites two possible sources of analogy. One of them was *gʷeleti (“to graze”), which had similar phonological shape and shared a semantic field. The other influence would be the subjunctive, which in strong verbs is expected to have the e-grade which also often occurs in the present stem as well.[1] But Joseph's law would mean that the entire subjunctive would have a stem *malas- in this verb, invalidating the subjunctive as an influence.
- Matasović is agnostic on which root vowel came first, merely remarking that the Brythonic reflects the zero grade and Goidelic the e-grade.[2]
- Darling integrates both the *mal- and *mel- stems in a single present paradigm, starting with a simple e-grade thematic present *melh₂-e-ti. Whenever the thematic vowel was *e (in the 2nd person, and in the 3rd-person singular), it would be coloured by the laryngeal into *a, which would then feed Joseph's Law (*eRa > *aRa, where *R is a resonant), and turn the root vowel into *a; the Brythonic present stem can be derived by leveling the a across the present stem. Meanwhile, the forms with thematic vowel *-o- would not be a-coloured and thus the root vowel remains as *e; the Goidelic forms would be derived from leveling the e across the present stem.[3]
Verb[edit]
*malati
Inflection[edit]
| Thematic present with a-colouring, t-preterite | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active voice | ||||
| Present | Imperfect | Future | Preterite | |
| 1st singular | *melū | *malamam | *mimlāsū | *milam |
| 2nd singular | *malasi | *malatās | *mimlāsesi | *mils |
| 3rd singular | *malati | *malato | *mimlāseti | *milt |
| 1st plural | *melomosi | *malamo | *mimlāsomosi | *milme |
| 2nd plural | *malatesi | *malastē | *mimlāsetesi | *milte |
| 3rd plural | *melonti | *malanto | *mimlāsonti | *milant |
| Pres. subjunctive | Past subjunctive | Imperative | ||
| 1st singular | *malasū | ? | — | |
| 2nd singular | *malasesi | ? | *mala | |
| 3rd singular | *malaseti | ? | *malatou | |
| 1st plural | *malasomosi | ? | *melomos | |
| 2nd plural | *malasetesi | ? | *malate | |
| 3rd plural | *malasonti | ? | *melontou | |
| Passive voice | ||||
| Present | Imperfect | Future | Preterite | |
| 1st singular | *melūr | — | *mimlāsūr | — |
| 2nd singular | *malatar | — | *mimlāsetar | — |
| 3rd singular | *malator | ? | *mimlāsetor | — |
| 1st plural | *melommor | — | *mimlāsommor | — |
| 2nd plural | *maladwe | — | *mimlāsedwe | — |
| 3rd plural | *melontor | ? | *mimlāsontor | — |
| Pres. subjunctive | Past subjunctive | Imperative | ||
| 1st singular | *malasūr | — | — | |
| 2nd singular | *malasetar | — | — | |
| 3rd singular | *malasetor | — | — | |
| 1st plural | *malasommor | — | — | |
| 2nd plural | *malasedwe | — | — | |
| 3rd plural | *malasontor | — | — | |
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Schumacher, Stefan, Schulze-Thulin, Britta (2004) Die keltischen Primärverben: ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon [The Celtic Primary Verbs: A comparative, etymological and morphological lexicon] (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; 110) (in German), Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, →ISBN, pages 470-472
- ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*mal-o-, *mel-o-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 255
- ^ Darling, Mark (2020) The Subjunctive in Celtic: Studies in Historical Phonology and Morphology (Thesis)[1], University of Cambridge,