Brythonic Languages - Characteristics

Characteristics

The Brythonic branch is also referred to as P-Celtic (like Gaulish) because the Brythonic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European phoneme *kw is p as opposed to the Goidelic c. Such nomenclature usually implies an acceptance of the P-Celtic hypothesis rather than the Insular Celtic hypothesis (for a discussion, see Celtic languages).

Other major characteristics include:

• the treatment of -m, -n as -am, -an.
• initial s- followed by a vowel was changed to h-
  • Welsh hen "old", hir "long", hafal "similar"
  • Breton hen "ancient", hir "long", hañval "similar"
  • Cornish hen "ancient", hir "long", haval "similar"
  • Irish sean "old", sior "long", samail "similar"
• Brythonic retains original nasals before -t
  • Breton kant "hundred" vs. Irish céad
• sp, sr, sv/sw became f, fr, chw
  • *swero "toy, game" became Welsh chwarae and Breton c'hoari (but Cornish gwari)
  • *srokna "nostril" became Welsh ffroen, Cornish frig and Breton froen.
• all other initial s- fell before consonants
  • smeru became Welsh mêr "marrow"
  • slemon became Welsh llyfn, Cornish leven and Breton levn "smooth"
• w (written u in Latin texts and ou in Greek) became gw in initial position, w internally, where in Gaelic it is f in initial position and disappears internally
  • windos "white" became Welsh gwyn, Cornish gwynn, Breton gwenn
  • wassos "servant, young man" became Welsh, Cornish and Breton gwas
• double plosives transformed into spirants: pp, cc, tt became f, ch (c'h), th (z) before a vowel or liquid
  • cippus > Breton kef, Cornish kyf, Welsh cyff, "tree trunk"
  • cattos > Breton kaz, Cornish kath, Welsh cath, "cat"
  • bucca > Breton boc'h, Cornish bogh, Welsh boch, "cheek"
• single voiceless plosives and voiced d, b, and m in an intervocalic position became soft spirants
  • Welsh dd, th, f
  • Cornish dh, th, v
  • Breton z, zh, v