Goidel languages

The family tree of Goidel languages ​​is as follows:

• • Old Irish
    • • Irish ( Gaeilge )
      • Scottish (Gaelic) language ( Gàidhlig )
      • Manx ( Gaelg )

Goidel languages ​​are q-Celtic languages. The languages ​​of this branch preserved the Proto-Celtic * k ^w (which later lost labialization and became [k]), unlike the Gallic and British languages, where * k ^w became [p] (p-Celtic). The exception is the non-Goidel language Celtiberian language , which also retained the original Proto-Celtic k ^w .

Another important difference between the Goidel and British subgroups of languages ​​is the transition of nasal sounds * an, am to a long vowel é before the initial explosive or fricative consonants. For example: Old Irish éc “death”, écath “fishing hook”, dét “tooth”, cét “hundred” and Welsh angau, angad, dant and cant .

In other cases:

• The nasal sound is stored before the vowel, j, w, m and the smooth consonant:
  • Old Irish ban "woman" (<banom)
  • Old Irish gainethar “he was born” (<gan-je-tor)
  • Old Irish ainb "ignorant" (<anwiss)
• The nasal sound goes into en before the other n :
  • Old Irish benn "peak" (<banno) (cf. Welsh bann )
  • Middle Irish ro-geinn “finds a place” (<ganne) (cf. Welsh gannaf )
• The nasal sound goes into in, im before the sonorous explosive:
  • Old Irish imb "oil" (compare Breton aman (en) n , Cornish amanyn )
  • Old Irish ingen “nail” (cf. Old English eguin )
  • Old Irish tengae "language" (cf. Welsh tafod )
  • Old Irish ing "Strait" (Middle English eh-ang "wide")

Historically, the Goidel languages ​​are a dialect continuum extending from southern Ireland through the Isle of Man to northern Scotland .

Goidel languages ​​were originally distributed exclusively in Ireland . The time of the appearance of Goidel languages ​​in Ireland remains a subject of debate, however, it significantly precedes the appearance of Britons in the British Isles (for more details see the article Prehistoric Ireland ). There is a hypothesis about the presence in the Goidel languages ​​of a pre- Goidel substrate (traces of the language or languages ​​of the pre-Celtic population of Ireland).

Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD e. groups of Irish Celts , known to the Romans as Scoti ( Gels ), began to migrate from Ireland to the territory of modern Scotland , where they eventually assimilated the Picts living there.

The Manx language is very close to the language of the north-east of Ireland , as well as to the now extinct Celtic language of Galloway (in the south-west of Scotland ). As a result of the Viking invasions, he was heavily influenced by the Old Icelandic language .

The first inscriptions in Goidel ( ogamic Irish ) were made by ogamic writing earlier than the 4th century AD. e.

The Old Irish language is represented by glosses in Latin religious manuscripts relating to the period from the VI to X centuries A.D. e.

The Mid-Irish language , the ancestor of modern Goidel languages, existed from the 10th to the 12th centuries AD. e. A large amount of literature has been preserved on it, including the early Irish legislative texts.

covers the period from the 13th to the 17th centuries AD. e. Variants of the New Irish language were used as the literary language of Ireland until the 17th century, and in Scotland until the 18th century.

Later spelling reforms led to the formation of a standardized diasystem of languages. The Manx language , based on English and Welsh , was introduced in 1610 by Bishop of Welsh descent John Phillips.

• Goidelic Ethnologue . Date of treatment January 28, 2015.
• Caoimhín P. Ó Donnaíle. Comparison of Scottish and Irish Gaelic (April 19, 2001). - Comparison of Irish and Scottish languages. Date of treatment January 28, 2015.