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In this paper, we examine the distribution of epenthesis in final clusters and initial syllable deletion in trisyllabic words in Welsh using a corpus of Twitter data (Jones et al. 2015). We show that the generalisations established in Hannahs 2009, Hannahs 2011, and Hannahs 2013 are largely borne out, but there are additional lexical and phonological complications.

Specifically, we show that these two processes are subject to lexical frequency effects that go in opposite directions. While this seems at first paradoxical, we go on to show that the frequency effects make sense given what we know about phonological processes generally and what we know about Welsh phonotactics specifically.

The organization of this paper is as follows. We first review Hannahs's foot-based account of the facts. We then turn to our Twitter data testing Hannahs's claims, but also considering additional variables. We show that: i) the phenomena are gradient; and ii) that they are subject to lexical frequency effects. We then argue that these effects are, in fact, to be expected and we justify that claim by looking at further data from another corpus.

This study, a suggested, sketched chapter of Kate Roberts's narrative grammar, examines the Modern Welsh converb category, a specific adverbial-status verb form. It proposes to establish a distinction between the paradigm of prepositional phrases, relatively open (unlimited), and the limited, grammaticalised (formalised) paradigm of preposition-homonyms, prefixed to infinitives (alias verb-noun), the converb paradigm.

Although the Old Irish article in is standardly described as a marker of definiteness, it also co-occurs with indefinite nouns. This phenomenon has long been known in the literature, but thus far even an adequate descriptive account of it has proven elusive. This article advances two claims about the distribution of in. First, indefinite referents introduced by in become the focal centre of the discourse. Second, in co-occurs with both definite and indefinite noun phrases because it is a signal to the addressee to retrieve or establish a mental representation of the referent. Although the distribution of in is unusual within Indo-European, it is actually predicted by the reference hierarchy of Dryer (2014). The Old Irish article is thus of particular importance for our understanding of the typology of article systems and referential marking.

Notwithstanding the considerable extent of intergenerational disruption within contemporary Gaelic communities in Scotland, the development of national language policy has tended to focus on Gaelic-medium, immersion education (GME) as a means of revitalising the language. Gaelic education is prioritised alongside increasing language use and promoting a positive image of the language in the most recent iteration of the National Gaelic Language Plan (2018–23) as was the case in the two previous Plans (Bòrd na Gàidhlig 2007, 2012). Yet fine-grained and mixed methodological research conducted by the author found extensive evidence that Gaelic tends not to be used to a substantial degree by former GME students, years after their formal schooling is completed. In this article I focus on previously unpublished qualitative data which illustrate understandings of oracy and fluency among interview participants (N=46) and their perceptions of language attrition since attending immersion education in childhood. As the analysis of interview material shows, such demonstrable attrition of Gaelic oracy years after immersion provides clear challenges to current language planning priorities in Scotland.

This article introduces the working methods of the Parsed Historical Corpus of the Welsh Language (PARSHCWL). The corpus is designed to provide researchers with a tool for automatic exhaustive extraction of instances of grammatical structures from Middle and Modern Welsh texts in a way comparable to similar tools that already exist for various European languages. The major features of the corpus are outlined, along with the overall architecture of the workflow needed for a team of researchers to produce it. In this paper, the two first stages of the process, namely pre-processing of texts and automated part-of-speech (POS) tagging are discussed in some detail, focusing in particular on major issues involved in defining word boundaries and in defining a robust and useful tagset.

The Irish of Iorras Aithneach differs somewhat from the other varieties of Irish. Among other things, this regional variety is slightly irregular as regards the treatment of loanwords from English. For example, in Iorras Aithneach an epenthetic vowel [e] is regularly inserted in certain clusters, but irregularly in other consonant groups (Ó Curnáin 2007). New vowels may also precede certain initial sounds and follow some final consonants in English loanwords. Since Ó Curnáin's (2007) book is the most recent and most extensive study of any Irish dialect ever undertaken, it seems a very appropriate source of information and analysis. The issues addressed in this paper are as follows. First, what are the reasons for epenthesis in loanwords in the Irish of Iorras Aithneach? Second, why is Iorras Aithneach epenthesis in borrowings from English irregular? Third, and marginal, what is the reason for prosthetic vowels on both word edges in Iorras Aithneach? The phonological model used in this paper is Government Phonology in its recent version.

The inscriptional remains of Gaulish preserve syntactic behaviours that are not expected from the perspective of the diachronic schemes usually posited for the development of early Insular Celtic syntax from Proto-Indo-European. Widespread evidence is attested, particularly for the behaviour of clitics, that does not seem reconcilable with many of the assumptions made in previous studies regarding the nature of the syntax of Proto-Celtic. Gaulish also evidently features scrambling-type phenomena such as left branch extraction that are not usually thought to appear in other Celtic languages. An analysis which begins with an assessment of these features leads to a more empirically predicated and consistent understanding of the early development of Celtic word order than has been proffered previously.

Traditionally, the river-name Ruhr and its siblings are said to be derived from the root PIE *reuH - 'tear up, dig up' (outdated form of reconstruction: *reu-, *reu-, *ru - [IEW 868]) and they are regarded as part of the so-called 'Old European hydronymy'. Reviewing the literature on the river-names Ruhr, Rur, Rulles, and the place-name Ruhla, we find that two different pre-forms tend to be reconstructed, *rūr° and * rur°. It can be shown that by applying a sound-law generally accepted in Indo-European linguistics (Dybo's Law), the pre-form must be reconstructed as * rur°, even if we start from the root mentioned above (PIE *ruH-ró- > Late (Western-)PIE * ruró-). But as the semantics of that root appears to be not very satisfactory, further roots are tried as starting-points for etymologizing the names in question. The following roots are possible from a structural/phonological point of view: a) PIE *h₃reuH- 'shout, roar': PIE *h₃ruH-ró- > late PIE *(h₃ )ruró -; b) PIE *h₂ reu - 'shine, sparkle (reddishly)': PIE * h₂ ru- ró- > late PIE *( h₂ )ruró -; c) PIE *h₃ reu - 'move quickly, dash forward': PIE * h₃ ru- ró- > late PIE *(h₃ )ruró -. Two language groups are attested in the areas, where the rivers are situated: Germanic and Celtic. But out of the three roots just mentioned none is continued in Germanic and only PIE *h₂ reu- 'shine, sparkle (reddishly)' and PIE *h₃ reu- 'move quickly, dash forward' are continued in Celtic. A formation from another root, PIE * preu- 'jump' (* pru-ró- > PCelt. * []ruró-) would give the correct result in Celtic, but the root does not have descendants in any Celtic language. Thus we arrive at the result that the river names, which are all on potentially Celtic territory, are most probably Celtic. The names meant either 'the quick(ly flowing) one' or 'the gleaming one' – both solutions are semantically typical for the oldest layers of hydronyms. No decision between these two results is possible. But as we can offer an etymology now anchored in a single Indo-European language (group), there is no reason anymore to regard these names as 'voreinzelsprachlich' and thus part of the 'Old European hydronymy'. It remains to be researched, whether all the hydronyms traditionally derived from the root PIE *reuH - 'tear up, dig up' (outdated form of reconstruction: *reu-, *reu-, *ru-) are really necessarily to be connected with this root, now that three other roots (PIE *h3reuH- 'shout, roar', PIE * h₂reu- 'shine, sparkle (reddishly)', PIE *h₃ reu - 'move quickly, dash forward') offer phonologically and semantically possible starting-points for etymologies.

This paper undertakes a comprehensive survey of the syntax of absolute forms of verbs in the corpus of early Welsh poetry known as hengerdd. Comparisons are made with the syntax of absolute forms in Old Irish, in Old Welsh and Old Breton, in Middle Welsh court poetry of the twelfth century onwards, and with those found in Middle Welsh prose texts.

This paper demonstrates that a quantitative frequency analysis of the data (Baayen 1992, 1993) from the New Corpus for Ireland (Nua-Chorpas na hÉireann) can shed new light on certain problems inherent in a purely qualitative analysis of passive potential adjectives as proposed in Bloch-Trojnar (2016). The range and status of so- and in- derivatives (including derivational doublets) are discussed on the basis of their semantics, distribution and frequency and it is argued that both so- and in- should be regarded as exponents of potential or objective adjectives in Irish. The respective derivatives show no marked differences in token frequencies, which does not allow us to classify one or the other as being more entrenched or less productive, since in both we find a comparable proportion of high and low frequency items. A corpus analysis allows us to establish that the range of in- derivatives is expanding at the expense of so- derivatives, but this expansion has not yet reached the systemic level of productivity restrictions. The semantic and syntactic constraints on the rule do not allow us to disjunctively specify the exact domains of the prefixes. In the class of transitive verbs so- shows a preference for verbs of motion, and in- for verbs of measure, transfer of possession, judgement verbs and SE verbs. Another piece of evidence in favour of subsuming so- and in- under one word formation rule is that the negative prefix do- attaches indiscriminately to both so- and in- formations.

Welsh is described as having two series of nasals, a voiced series [m, n, ŋ], and a voiceless series, transcribed as [m, n, ŋ] or [m^h, n^h, ŋ^h]. In this paper, I give a synchronic analysis of the nasals and argue that the second series are phonologically sequences of a nasal followed by [h], i.e. [mh, nh, ŋh]. Moreover, I show that the properties and distribution of these consonants all follow from this assumption. The argument for the analysis comes from: phonetics, the distribution of the mutation system, syllabification, the distribution of [h], poetry, and dialect data.

This article discusses the early Irish adjective de(i)n, found particularly frequently in verse, in order to investigate the validity of DIL's statement that it is indeclinable. A collection of examples of the adjective is analysed with regard to statements made by Meyer, Pokorny and Marstrander concerning the stem of de(i)n, and DIL's claim is assessed against this background. Problematic examples are discussed in detail and a range of interpretations is considered. In conclusion, while none of the theories put forward can explain all instances of de(i)n given in this article, DIL's statement regarding indeclinability should not be accepted without question.

This article briefly outlines the history of research into Welsh personal names and discusses the importance of Welsh data for general studies of onomastics. To illustrate this importance it also analyses the prehistory of the Venetic anthroponym Uposedos beside its Welsh comparanda. In turn, the data of other Indo-European languages is traditionally used for discussions of the Welsh onomastics, and such an analysis is carried out in the article for Welsh names containing the component (-)dog(-) as in Dogfael, Eldog. The difficult Old Welsh name Saturnbiu alongside similar early Welsh formations is treated from the point of historical linguistics, and this analysis also adduces semantic comparanda from outside the Indo-European world. The importance of extra-linguistic factors for this discussion is paramount and data from various medieval Christian traditions and ancient mythology is used to support the suggested reconstruction. The paper calls (again!) for the urgent necessity of the compilation of a Historical and Comparative Dictionary of Welsh Personal Names.

In fact, however, dyma and dyna comprise doubly two homonyms: dyma/dyna presentatives, and dyma/dyna referential pronouns, typically rhematic or focal.

Following a descriptive breakdown of the syntactic properties of the presentatives, the Presentative Narrative Tenses (PNTs) I to VI are discussed.

Functionally striking and statistically prevalent is (PNT I) # dyma + noun phrase/personal pronoun + yn-converb2#, where we encounter two homonymous sub-tenses: the first with specific scenic or theatrical ('dramatic', narratologically scene-setting) semantics; the second non-scenic, but tagmemically functional. It is noteworthy that the entire presentative clause is high-level, narratologically rhematic or focal to the preceding text: it contains the key event. The presentative signals immediacy between narrator, reader and narrated character.

This paper examines the placement of obligatory adverbial phrases in positive main clauses in Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi, in the first part (Y Keis) of Ystoryaeu Seint Greal, and in Ystorya Bown o Hamtwn in which a third singular or plural form of mynet is combined with a locative phrase containing the preposition y or at. Within the individual texts, considerable positional variation occurs, but this variation can be shown to be explicable in terms of a contextual and pragmatic analysis. The comparison of the positional patterns and their narrative uses in the three texts shows a striking stability of the pragmatic principle for the placement of constituents in positive main clauses in the language of Middle Welsh prose – even if, as it may be the case in a few examples from Ystorya Bown, the syntactic choices of the Middle Welsh translator have been influenced by his Anglo-Norman source. Finally, some promising paths for future research are delineated.

Welsh structure differs from English with regard to object references. English emphasizes individuation, making a clear distinction between singular and plural reference. In Welsh, however, the complex number marking system makes the number reference of nouns much more opaque allowing a much stronger emphasis on collections than in English. While evidence suggests that learning collective nouns is difficult, this may relate to English speakers specifically because the structure of English emphasizes individuals. The basic forms of some Welsh nouns refer to collections and modified with a unit ending to individuate one from the collection (e.g. coed 'trees' versus coeden 'tree'). Such differences may have both cognitive and linguistic consequences. This study examines noun type distributions in Welsh and English to determine the extent to which the two languages differ with regard to number reference. Samples of the most frequent nouns in Welsh and English texts, with their type and token frequencies, were classified into different noun categories. The results showed a strong similarity across the two languages for some noun types (e.g. singular/plural nouns and collective nouns). However, an additional collection/unit classification in Welsh accounted for 2.5% of all noun types, with collection forms occurring almost as often as unit forms. Where plural forms accounted for 25.4% of noun tokens in English, very few plural forms were used in Welsh (1.25%). The opacity of number reference in Welsh may have important effects on the way Welsh-speaking children learn their language and thus impact on the theories of language acquisition.

This study shows that adjectives in Welsh can be modified by various phrases in pre-adjectival position, post-adjectival position, and in a more complex configuration in which a modifying expression precedes a prepositional phrase which contains the modified adjective. Welsh is similar in some respects to other languages, but it is distinctive in the use of plain adjectives and not de-adjectival adverbs, a relatively extensive use of post-modification, and the very distinctive use of a prepositional configuration. Formal analyses, using X-bar configurations, consider whether modified adjectival phrases can be described as Degree Phrases or Adjective Phrases, and whether the modifiers are heads, specifiers, or adjuncts. The different syntax of the prepositional configuration is discussed separately. The analysis also considers multiple modification, and various constraints.

It has long been observed that certain final consonant clusters in Welsh may provoke vowel epenthesis (svarabhakti), deletion of one member of the cluster, or metathesis. These clusters consist of a consonant followed by [r], [l] or [n]; other sorts of final clusters are permitted. The occurrence of epenthesis, deletion or metathesis, moreover, depends not only on the type of cluster involved, but also on the prosodic size of the input form. I argue in this paper that these three processes – epenthesis, deletion and metathesis – are all directly connected. All arise in order to avoid a sonority sequencing violation: an obstruent followed by a sonorant in a final cluster represents illicit rising sonority in a coda. To account for the data at hand, the analysis will rely on the interaction between several constraints, including a constraint militating against epenthesis, a constraint militating against deletion, and a constraint working against metathesis. The interaction of these constraints serves to capture the effects of epenthesis, deletion and metathesis in avoiding a violation of the undominated 'sonority sequencing' constraint. In addition, prosodic structure will be shown to play a role in deciding between epenthesis (which occurs in the case of a monosyllabic input form), and deletion or metathesis (which occurs when the input form is bisyllabic). Finally, account will also be given for the fact that the epenthetic vowel is a copy of the stem vowel (rather than simply a 'default' vowel such as schwa) by means of a correspondence relation between the epenthetic vowel and the underlying stem vowel.

Noun pluralization in Welsh involves a number of different strategies, and the alternations which result appear extremely complex and unpredictable. This paper is an attempt to provide a coherent account of this aspect of Welsh morphology, able to explain the wide variety of forms which occur. It will be argued too that the descriptive framework adopted here is not required solely to account for the patterns of noun pluralization, but will also be relevant when the focus is shifted to other aspects of Welsh morphology.

Recent research into the development of the Welsh negation has shown that it follows the principle of Jespersen's Cycle, in which an originally emphatic negative-polarity expression gradually loses its emphasis and finally becomes the only, or at least the main, marker of negation. One important stage in this process is characterized by the occurrence of negative-polarity expressions with unambiguous adverbial force. In this article, I will analyse and classify the uses of dim as an expression of negative polarity in the Middle Welsh adaptation of the Anglo-Norman Geste de Boeve de Haumtone, Ystorya Bown de Hamtwn, and discuss a range of loan phrases that are used as negative-polarity items.

The name of Arthur, the mythical war-leader and ideal king, probably referring to a second-century Roman commander in Britain, still lacks an etymology convincing in every detail. This short note reviews earlier proposals and presents a new explanation. Welsh Arthur < Latin Artōrius is the Latinized form of a Celtic patronym *Arto-rīg-ios, a derivative of *Arto-rīXs = Old Irish Art-rí.

This study examines a distinctive construction in Welsh which provides interesting data for discussing the role of the core and the periphery (Chomsky 1981). Most work on syntax focuses on the core but Culicover (1999) and Culicover and Jackendoff (1999) have promoted interest in the periphery, drawing attention to both its size and its importance. For the purposes of this study, an X-bar approach will be adopted for the formalization of core rules. Data which cannot be accounted for within these rules will be regarded as non-canonical. The Welsh construction which is examined in this study raises problems of phrase structure analysis. There are distributional reasons for considering it to be an AP, but it does not have the canonical internal syntax of an AP. The possibility therefore arises that we must establish non-canonical rules to account for this construction. We shall conclude that we have a non-canonical clause which has the distribution of an AP.

Although 'pan-Gaelic' rhetoric has been a recurring theme in language movements in Ireland and Scotland since the late nineteenth century, there have been no significant efforts to bring Irish and Scottish Gaelic closer together in linguistic terms. Instead, contact between the two speech communities has been relatively limited and intranational forms of linguistic nationalism have been dominant. This article analyses some of the key debates and decisions in corpus planning for Irish and Scottish Gaelic since the late nineteenth century, showing how potential opportunities to promote convergence were overlooked and how linguistic modernization has tended to increase the divergence between the two forms. Against this historical backdrop, the article considers the extent to which the promotion of linguistic convergence would have been a realistic goal and whether such efforts would have harmed broader language revitalization initiatives in Ireland and Scotland.

A close textual examination of case-marking and role in Gaulish suggests that the instrumental (and ablative) formants and functions inherited from Indo-European remained largely independent in use from those of the other oblique cases. Although a distinct morphological locative seems to have been given up at a prehistoric stage, the Gaulish of the Roman period appears to have preserved a much fuller and more synthetic system of grammatical case than did any of the medieval Celtic languages. The practice of projecting Insular Celtic behaviours onto Continental Celtic (or even cross-linguistic abstractions derived from broader linguistic theory) should not serve as a substitute for analysing Gaulish inscriptions from the perspective of interlingual intertextuality and of properly contextualized epigraphic genre. Gaulish should be understood principally as a closely historicized inscriptional language, its attested expressions constrained by typical ancient Mediterranean epigraphic pragmatics, yet representing an idiosyncratic development of Celtic linguistic tradition nonetheless.

This paper examines the behaviour of definite and indefinite NPs in the sentence in Welsh, and compares the distribution patterns they display with those found in the case of NPs which are place-names. It argues that if clear generalizations are to be captured, it will be necessary to accept that not only syntactic, but also semantic factors must be taken into account. The grammatical patterns found in Welsh do not operate in a vacuum, and must take account of the reality which is being described.

The controversy surrounding the phonological and phonetic prehistory of the Neo-Brittonic voiceless spirants continues. This note defends the theory that they reflect voiceless aspirated geminate stops against some recent criticism, which has, however, failed to provide an adequate account of the issues involved, and has obscured several crucial concepts and meta-concepts.

Middle to Modern Welsh relative clauses feature two binary formal oppositions of complementizer selection and gap realization that have typically been taken to be in some sort of parallel distribution in such a way that a single independent variable (traditionally, constituent structure 'depth') can account for the realization of both. It is demonstrated that the two formal variables cross-cut one another distributionally, in such a way that no one single independent variable can account for both sets. The paper shows that the first set of complementizer selection in many construction types, particularly relativization on notional 'possessors', behaves in a manner that resembles case-marking as well as construction-type marking, so that relativization on objects of prepositions in possessive constructions coding possessors behaves in a manner systematically different from either objects of true locative prepositions or objects of prepositions that mark 'experiencers'. While complementizer selection and gap realization are not correlated distributionally, complementizer selection in possessive clauses enters into correlation with other variables of morpho-syntactic form, including PP NP word order, that are also diagnostic of clauses coding notional 'possession'. It is argued that only a construction-based or 'coding view' of syntax can take account of these data.

The paper focuses on verbs which are derived from agent nouns in Modern Irish, e.g. siúinéir 'joiner' – ag siúinéireacht 'doing joinery work', ceardaí 'craftsman' – ag ceardaíocht 'working as a craftsman'. The analysis is carried out in the model of Lexeme Morpheme Base Morphology put forward by Beard (1995), whose cornerstone is the separation of the grammatical and formal aspect of word formation rules. As far as the grammatical plane is concerned, the input and output are specified. The rule operates on lexical, denominal and deverbal agents. The article argues that the resulting verbs form a separate lexical class of defective verbs which are confined to expressing progressive aspect and should be specified as [+progressive/ imperfective]. This would imply that the imperfective aspect in Irish is not only a grammatical but also a lexical category. As far as spell-out mechanisms are concerned, the abstract morphological relation is formally realised by a rule of affixation attaching the suffix: -(e)acht [WXt]. -íocht is not a separate ending but a contextually conditioned allomorph. The paper also briefly addresses the question of a sizeable group of forms terminating in -(e)acht and -íocht which are not attested in verbal usage. Either we have to do with actional nominalizations based on potential present participles or we are dealing with representatives of a separate lexical category, i.e. Nomina Essendi, which happens to be marked with homophonous affixes -(e)acht and -íocht.

The paper revisits the question of the way the British diphthong *au is reflected in the extant Brittonic languages. The proposal that the correct chain of development was *au > *ō > W u is upheld, the evidence for the alternative proposal, *au > * ō > tonic MW aw, being examined and found inadequate. Related issues of the origins of some forms of the conjugated prepositions, some etymologies and some further contingent matters are discussed.

This paper focuses of two aspects of the Irish language. In particular, Old and Middle Irish poetry is subject to purely phonological analysis from the viewpoint of a theory of representations called Government Phonology. It is argued here that rhyming patterns which were employed in Old and Middle Irish poetry were established as early as in Primitive Irish and, more precisely, at the 'shwa stage' (some time before 500 AD). From the purely linguistic viewpoint, there seems to be no other explanation for the fact that Old Irish poetry allowed single voiceless stops to rhyme with clusters, e.g. [t] = [Rt], while voiced stops were incapable of rhyming with sequences of two consonants, e.g. [g] ≠ [rg]. Also the ability of homorganic clusters such as [Rd] to rhyme with heterorganic ones, e.g. [lg], can be explained only if we adopt the standpoint that the metrical abilities of words ending in such consonant groups were determined when the phonological structures of these clusters were identical, which was during the 'shwa stage'. The other feature of the development of Irish discussed here is the so-called Modern Irish svarabhakti. It is proposed that this vowel epenthesis in fact occurred just after the 'shwa stage', in contrast with traditional analyses of Irish. Such a view results from a phonological analysis of different consonant clusters which, according to the principles constituting the theoretical model adopted here, must have developed in ways predictable by the theory.

One effect of language contact on the system of Manx Gaelic has been the erosion of the spectrum commanded by fully functional languages. In Manx, 'Classical Manx', the highly formal and archaic written language of the Bible, occupies one end of this spectrum, the other being occupied by the fragmented, English-influenced speech of a handful of bilinguals recorded in the mid-twentieth century. Other parts of the spectrum were until recent times virtually invisible. Modern speakers look to the latter for phonological information, and to the former for syntactic, semantic and morphological information. Many factors have contributed to the muddying of the waters; however, twenty-first-century Manx is recapturing a degree of subtlety through the re-establishment of categories and functions. Gaps in the spectrum are now being filled.

The primary aim of this study is to explore the distinctive syntax of a clause in contemporary informal Welsh which contains the lexeme piau 'own, belong'. The study shows that piau clauses have idiosyncratic properties which are atypical of the core grammar of Welsh, and raises issues as to how syntactic models which are based on regular linguistic constructions can cope with irregular but commonly occurring constructions. Arising out of this, the study has a secondary aim, namely, to make these data available as a contribution to the debate, which is found in Culicover (1999) and Culicover and Jackendoff (1999), on the extent to which Chomsky's (1981) distinction between core and peripheral grammar can be applied.

So far, no thorough study has been made about the Bas-Vannetais Breton dialect spoken in Lorient district. In this article, we shall study the system of initial consonant mutations in this dialect, compared to that of Literary Vannetais (which is based on Haut-Vannetais).

French

Le dialecte breton bas-vannetais parlé dans la région de Lorient n'a encore jamais fait l'objet d'études approfondies. Dans cet article, nous étudions le système des mutations consonantiques initiales dans ce dialecte, en comparaison avec le vannetais littéraire (basé sur le haut-vannetais).

This paper evaluates proposals for Latin influence on a number of developments in medieval Irish against recent theories of contact-induced change as presented by Thomason and Kaufman (1988) and Thomason (2001). Given the relevant sociolinguistic context, we would expect the medieval Latin/Irish contact situation to be a special type of non-oral borrowing scenario involving influence from a prestigious literary/sacral language on a developing standard vernacular. In such a scenario the expectations are for heavy lexical borrowing of non-basic vocabulary items combined with minor borrowing of non-invasive structural items such as certain types of function words, new phonemes restricted to loanwords and high-prestige morphosyntactic construction types which do not affect basic syntax of the borrowing language. All proposals found in the literature for lexical and structural borrowing of Latin elements in medieval Irish are shown to fit into this general classification. However, closer examination of the proposals for structural borrowing reveals that most are better explained as having internal causes, either exclusively or at least additionally. Only borrowing related to the lexicon can be firmly established, confirming the claim that the role of Latin in medieval Ireland remained linguistically limited.

Contra the prevailing Chomskyan view of Modern Irish VSO, where the order is derived via verb movement, this paper proposes that Lexical-Functional Grammar provides a more explanatory account using a flat, VP-less structure. Using evidence from complex copular predicates, this paper shows that the variability in category of the initial predicate is due to a categorial underspecification in the S phrase structure rule. Further, in order to account for the fact that both phrasal and head material can appear in this position, a new kind of variable is proposed that holds over bar level. Finally, the paper accounts for the outward appearance of VP-like constituents by appealing to the fact that the language uses verbal nouns, and it has an NP rule, but no VP rule.

This article looks at variation in the distribution of /j/ in post-tonic syllables in Middle Welsh. It extends previous studies by looking at variation at the level of the individual lexical item, using data from a stylistically and lexically relatively homogeneous group of law manuscripts from both north and south Wales. Many items show no variation, appearing either with /j/ or without /j/ in all texts. Variable items show different patterns of distribution: for some items, /j/-full forms are restricted to northern texts, and even there compete with /j/-less forms; for other items, the /j/-full forms dominant in the northern texts are found alongside /j/-less forms even in the south. With frequent items, it seems clear that the overall patterns closely resemble those found with cases of lexical diffusion of linguistic innovations. In addition to documenting the patterns of variation, this article makes some proposals as to how they may have arisen. It is suggested that, in the items investigated closely here (plural suffixes and synchronically monomorphemic items), two processes play the major role: a sound change deleting /j/ in the onset of post-tonic syllables, which diffuses south-to-north; and analogical extension of /j/ into the -eu and -oed plural suffixes, restricted to northern varieties.

The Modern Welsh epistolary texteme is here introduced and briefly examined, on the basis of the correspondence of Kate Roberts and Saunders Lewis. Following some preliminary general comments on the texteme, six syntactical topics are discussed – the nynegocentric deixis and tensing; presentation; focalization, topicalization and related issues; the epistolary narrative; allocutive and reactive elements; parenthesis – with a view to demonstrating the special grammatical systems of this texteme which, despite its affinities with the dialogue, is idiosyncratic in perspective and juncture.

The following article examines the occurrence of Latin within the medieval Irish Life of Saint Patrick, the Vita Tripartita Sancti Patricii, from syntactical, lexical and functional points of view. Some tendencies for codeswitching in the text can be discerned. In accordance with Müller (1999), 'marking off' in the broadest sense can be advanced as the main function for codeswitching, though this does not provide an overall explanation.

Recently released census data on Irish in Northern Ireland, Manx, Welsh and Gaelic indicate very different progress in reversing language shift. Irish is fairly steadily maintained, Manx has shown vigorous revival, Gaelic is in scarcely retarded free-fall, and Welsh shows strong evidence of genuine recovery.

Original conceptual tools of intergenerational ratio and intergenerational gain/loss have been developed which enable RLS to be assessed. Welsh is highly positive both nationally and in every local education authority area. Gaelic has, however, some local strengths. Manx RLS can be linked to Manxmedium schooling, and the effects of Irish-medium schooling in Northern Ireland can also be seen.

These results indicate different language-function in these societies, its symbolization and re-symbolization. A dynamic picture of different social processes, and their outcomes, can inform language policy. A review of policies is required, especially for Gaelic.

This study analyses the use of forms of the present tense of bod 'be' in informal spoken Welsh. Extensive attention has been given to the variant forms of the third persons (mae, maen, ydy, ydyn, sydd, oes). There are other variant forms of all the persons of bod 'be' which are based on phonological contraction, giving the contrast of full and contracted forms (e.g. ydy versus dy). These variants have received much less attention. This study shows that phonology alone cannot account for the choice of a full or contracted form. Three major findings emerge. One is that their use is licensed by features of negation and mood. Another is that the full forms have a more restricted distribution than the contracted forms. The third finding is that there are differences in the use of full and contracted forms in northern and southern dialects.

The paper is an attempt at establishing an exhaustive inventory of nuclear tones in the western variety of Irish, called Connemara Irish. For this purpose O'Connor and Arnold's (1973) model of analysis is adopted with minor modifications, such as the incorporation of vowel length into other existing criteria. The use of O'Connor and Arnold's model of description made it possible to arrive at the inventory of eleven tones some of which bear resemblance to the tones recorded in English, i.e.the high-rise, the low-rise, the high-fall, the low-fall and the mid-level; some other tones differ in pitch configurations from their English counterparts, i.e.the simple fall-rise, the simple rise-fall, the complex fall-rise and the complex rise-fall; and there are two tones which are characteristic exclusively of Connemara Irish, i.e.the flatfall and the flat-rise. The paper does not aim at a semantic analysis of particular tones and the only contextual effects that are taken into account are presence or absence of emotion. These effects combined with the tendency for Irish long vowels to be raised in pitch are responsible for the occurrence of the simple fall-rise and the simple rise-fall in this dialect.

The 'standard' account of the development of the Neo-Brittonic fricatives which are written in Welsh as ff, ph, th, ch, is that of Jackson's Language and History in Early Britain, which traces these sounds historically to geminates *pp, *tt, *kk, in Brittonic and Celtic, and Latin pp, tt, cc in loans (with phonological adjustments, these comments apply equally to Cornish and Breton). However, this 'standard' account has been a minority view for some decades. It was challenged early by David Greene, who was followed at various intervals by Anthony Harvey, Peter Wynn Thomas and Patrick Sims-Williams. Although these scholars have presented analyses which differ to a greater or lesser extent from one another, they nevertheless have in common the rejection of the LHEB account, in particular, the tracing of the Welsh spirants directly to old geminates. They see instead various separate changes in relative chronology, including the simplification of the geminates to the corresponding simple stops. I have upheld an LHEB-type analysis in previous work, and in the present paper will show in greater detail, 1) why the revisionist view is false (false predictions of how the attested forms should turn out), and 2) elaborate on the actual mechanisms involved in the development of Neo-Brittonic consonants, emphasizing the nature of phonology as a cognitive system of knowledge, rather than a physical system of sounds and articulations.

Among Celticists it is well known that suddenly encountered new characters in a story/sagatext in Old Irish can be introduced using the definite article, as in: Ba dorchae ind adaig. [...]. Co n-accae ara chind in fer, 7 leth a chind fair [...]. 'Dark was the night. He sees a man before him, and half his head on him.' (LU 4932). Thurneysen explains the usage as denoting a participant already known to the storyteller, but not to the listener/reader (c. f. GOI § 470). This is rather unsatisfactory as it is too general and this state of affairs could be said to hold for all the items of a story told. Cross-linguistically this use of the article is unusual as the article is normally only used for known entities. Thus in the grammatical framework of Functional Grammar, the definite article is defined as being used for nouns with continued reference in narrative; it therefore can be referred to as a 'topicality marker' (c. f. Givón 1995: 379ff.). In this paper the usage of the article in Old Irish with newly introduced nouns will be examined. We will first deal with how the Old Irish article is traditionally analysed. Secondly Functional Grammar approaches to definiteness will be examined in different languages. Finally we will evaluate how Old Irish can be seen in this context. It will be argued that in(d) serves as a cataphoric deictic element used as an attention marker.