No Proto-Celtic?

[David L. White]

[ Moderator's note:
  The following quoted material is taken from a post by Rick Mc Callister
  dated 10 May 2001.
  --rma ]

> As a non-linguist, I'll have to take your word on that but could
> someone explain the seeming complexity of mutations wrought by Irish
> numbers on following consonants. As I remember some numbers don't cause
> mutation, and there are two types of mutations caused by other numbers

>>        French liasion is abstractly similar to Celtic mutation, for both
>> might be described as the phonemicization of originally phonetic processes
>> occurring across boundaries.

        It's not too difficult.  Words or types of words that used to end in
a vowel cause lenition, and words that used to end in a nasal cause
"eclipsis" or the nasal mutation.  Thus the sequence of IE numbers that used
to end in /-m/ (7-9?) cause the nasal mutation, with a little bit of
analogical exetnsion somewhere.