Stifter, David (2012) Lenition of s in Gaulish? In: The Sound of Indo-European: Phonetics, Phonemics, and Morphophonemics. Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, pp. 523-544. ISBN 9788763538381

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Abstract

Through all periods of Gaulish, viz. Early, Middle and Late Gaulish, the sibilants is amply attested in word-initial, word-medial and word-final po-sition in the vernacular language material. Therefore it is inadmissible to assume a general rule of "lenition" of s (i.e. aspiration or loss). A close ex-amination of the material reveals, however, that a set of very specific rules of s-deletion operated on the language: first, loss of sin word-initial posi-tion in proclitics; secondly, loss of s in the onset of second syllables when the first syllable also started with s; thirdly, assimilation of s to resonants. These three rules probably operated at the Common Celtic stage. A fourth rule, the optional weakening and loss of word-finals affected Gaulish from the Middle Gaulish period onwards and is a development not shared by Vulgar Latin of the time.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Lenition of s; Gaulish;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts & Humanities > School of Celtic Studies > Early Irish (Sean Ghaeilge)
Item ID:	14055
Depositing User:	Prof. David Stifter
Date Deposited:	22 Feb 2021 12:04
Publisher:	Museum Tusculanum Press
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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