Celtic closer to Anatolian?

petegray petegray at btinternet.com
Thu Feb 24 08:10:11 UTC 2000


This all depends on the isoglosses you choose - obviously.  I would be
interested to see the ones that link Tocharian with Celtic.

There are some isoglosses which are claimed to separate the two.  I'm rather
cautious about putting too much weight on "isoglosses" that I cannot always
justify from my own knowledge, but for what it's worth:

Germanic, Celtic and Italic are one side of collection of isoglosses which
has Tocharian, Hittite etc on the other, and includes:
(a)  nouns in -tu:t formed from adjectives
(b) -ss- consistently rather than -st- or -tt.
(c) I also have a note about "-a- derivative nouns"  which I no longer
understand.   Maybe it will remind you of something.

Celtic Italic & Greek are one side of another collection which has Tocharian
and Hittite on the other, and includes:
(a) feminine form comparatives
(b) Interconsonantal H falls
(c) absence of -i on secondary endings

Peter



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