Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/writ-

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

Etymology

From a root noun derived from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).

Preposition

*writ-

1. against, opposite
2. towards
3. by, at, next to

Reconstruction notes

• The reconstruction of this preposition is complicated.
  • Old Irish pretonic fris- and conjugation stem fris- are indicative of an original *writs. This cannot give the Brittonic forms, however.
  • Alternative Old Irish frith- and the Brittonic forms indicate a proto-form *writi.
• Gordon resolves the discrepancy by reconstructing a base root noun *writs, locative singular *writi, from which the two stems attested in Celtic can be derived.
• Schrijver takes *writi to be ancestral to all Celtic forms, but this dogma forces him to assume an irregular development -t > -ts- > -ss- for the Old Irish conjugated forms which is contradicted flagrantly by the 3rd-person singular forms of verbs (ending in *-ti).
• Matasović's reconstruction *writu- is incorrect, since it is phonologically impossible for Old Irish fri or its conjugated forms to come from this.

Descendants

• Proto-Brythonic: *gwurθ
  • Old Breton: gurth
    • Middle Breton: ouz, oz
      • Breton: ouzh
  • Middle Cornish: worth, orth
  • Old Welsh: gurt
    • Middle Welsh: wrth
      • Welsh: wrth
• Old Irish: fri
  • Middle Irish: fri
    • Irish: ré, re (“against, towards, with”)

      ⇒ Irish: fa ré, fara, frae (“along with, beside”)

    • Manx: rish
    • Scottish Gaelic: ri