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.[1]
    • 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-[2] is incorrect, since it is phonologically impossible for Old Irish fri or its conjugated forms to come from this.

    Descendants

    • Proto-Brythonic: *wurθ
    • Old Irish: fri
      • Middle Irish: fri
        • Classical Gaelic: re
        • Irish: re (“to, towards, against”)
          ⇒ Irish: le (conflated with la)
          ⇒ Irish: fa ré, fara, frae (“along with, beside”)
        • Manx: rish
        • Scottish Gaelic: ri

    References

    1. ^ Gordon, Randall Clark (2012), Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, pages 62-65
    2. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*writu-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 431
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