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

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Alternative reconstructions

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Etymology

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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

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*malati

  1. to grind, to crush

Inflection

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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

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  • Proto-Brythonic: *malɨd
  • Old Irish: meilid

References

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  1. 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
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Darling, Mark (2020) The Subjunctive in Celtic: Studies in Historical Phonology and Morphology (Thesis)‎[1], University of Cambridge, →DOI