WeeFalorieMan wrote:
That's a pretty good theory!
I don't know anything about the history of words, but you have inspired me to come up with my own theory
I happen to speak Spanish and the word for "flower" is "flor" and I think the word in French is "fleur". So, I'm thinking that maybe "plúr", "flower", "flor", and "fleur" all come from some old original word in a language that used to be spoken a long time ago. I know that Spanish and French come from Latin, but not Irish and English, so maybe there was some language that came before Irish, English, and Latin, and that could be why there are sometimes similar words in all of these languages. Come to think of it, maybe it's the same thing with numbers: aon, dó, trí – uno, dos, tres – one, two, three, 7rl.
Actually, I think both of our theories could be right, it just depends on which word we happen to be talking about.
I have a huge interest in etymology. All the Romanesque and the Celtic languages come from an Indo- European origin as does Sanskrit, Iranian and many other languages. Most of the languages of Europe do also, there are a few exceptions like Basque. As the Indo- European language spread from its origin it slowly mixed with other possible languages spoken at the time in other areas. Also, as languages grow further away from their source they begin to form dialects; dialects then over time become languages. Languages also take in influences from other languages around them through conquest, new inventions and one language having greater status than the other status etc... This is an unbreakable cycle that continues to this day, and is even excellerated due to Globalisation. This is an extremely broad subject, not to mention the ambiguity surrounding word and language origins due to lack of physical evidence.
(o) mean a vowel can fall either side of the consonant.
Indo European p(o)t(o)erLatin pater- Spanish
padreGerman vater-
English fatherIrish-
athairHere we can see the transformation of the Indo- European word for father "
p(o)t(o)er". Latin is the closest. As Latin broke down and became Vulgar- French- French, Italian, Spanish etc... the consonant swapped with the vowel which is a common trait of dialectal development. English is more of a "bastard" language. And as you mentioned English above, lets take English as an example of a language with a complex origin due to it being like a sponge soaking in influences from other languages. What I mean by "bastard" is, it is a mixture of several languages. The Irish were never able to pronounce "p" and as a result all words adopted before the 5th century A.D had the "p" dropped.
The language spoken in Britain before the arrival of the Romans was a Celtic language, possibly of the insular P- Celtic variety, similar to Welsh. Before the Celts arrived in Britain the language spoken is not known, possibly a form of Pictish (whose own origin is highly debatable). The Romans took control of central and lower Britain and soon Latin was the language of high status and privilege. As the British were Romanised their language would have become influenced. When the Romans left Britain in the 5th century, to quell Rebellions closer to home, The Irish (Déisii and the Uí Liathán) and the Scots began to attack Britain and Wales. The British then turned to the Saxons of Saxony, East- Germany, who themselves were experiencing great drought and starvation, for protection.
The first wave of Saxons to arrive in Britain were men and warriors. At first the British plan was working but then as more Saxons arrived increasing numbers of women and children also arrived. Soon food stocks were unable to to keep up with the amount of people arriving and the Saxons then turned on the native Britons and forced them off their lands in Eastern Britain an forced them into lands in the west such as Wales and Cornwall. Wales remains a P- Celtic speaking region, who speak Welsh or (Cymraeg). The word "wales" itself is a Saxon word meaning stranger/ foreigner. So the native British were beginning to be called strangers in the own land. A P- Celtic language was spoken in Cornwall until the late 1700 and remnants still survived until much later. It is now extinct but revival attempts are underway. Cornish or (Kernowek/ Kernewek) is quite similar to Welsh. The Breton language of Brittany France is also descended from the British language spoken in Britain. Britons fled to Brittany in the early- middle ages also due to the Saxons.
Saxon- German became and remained the language of status and Government in Central and Eastern- Britain until the arrival of the Normans and the decisive Battle of Hastings in 1066 when William 2nd of Normandy became known as William the Conqueror or King William the 1st Norman King of Britain. After this battle, French, derived from vulgar French- Latin and a mixture of Germanic Goths and visi- Goths, became the language of the courts and government. French heavily influenced Saxon- German and a hybrid known as English was created. English was again influenced from the Classics (Latin and Greek) due to the classics becoming languages of the educated classes. Even today when one wants to sound sophisticated in English one uses words that have a classic language origin. But when you want to be understood you use words that are of a Germanic origin
.
Irish has a heatedly debatable origin, with linguists fighting archaeologists and many possible theories.
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Is Fearr súil romhainn ná ḋá ṡúil inár ndiaiḋ
(Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin)
Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice
I'm familiar with Munster Irish/ Gaolainn na Mumhan (GM) and the Official Standard/an Caighdeán Oifigiúil (CO)
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