Gaulish Language - Phonology - Sound Laws

Sound Laws

• Gaulish changed the PIE voiceless labiovelar kʷ to p (hence P-Celtic), a development also observed in Brythonic (as well as Greek and some Italic languages), while the other Celtic, 'Q-Celtic', retained the labiovelar. Thus the Gaulish word for "son" was mapos, contrasting with Ogamic Irish *maqqos (attested genitive maqqi), which became mac (gen. mic) in modern Irish. In modern Welsh the word map, mab (or its contracted form ap, ab) is found in surnames. Similarly one Gaulish word for "horse" was epos (in Old Breton eb and modern Breton keneb "pregnant mare") while Old Irish has ech, modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic each, Manx egh; all derived from Indo-European *eḱʷos.
• Voiced labiovelar gʷ became w, e. g. *gʷediūmi → uediiumi "I pray" (but Irish guidhim, Welsh gweddi "to pray").
• PIE ds, dz became /tˢ/, spelled đ, e.g. *neds-samo → neđđamon (cf. Irish nesamh "nearest", Welsh nesaf "next").
• PIE eu became ou, and later ō, e.g. *teutā → touta → tōta "tribe" (cf. Irish tuath, Welsh tud "people").
• Additionally, intervocalic /st/ became the affricate (alveolar stop + voiceless alveolar stop) and intervocalic /sr/ became and /str/ became . Finally, when a labial or velar stop came before either a /t/ or /s/ the two sounds merged into the fricative .