Horthmen as 'mGall'

[Brian M. Scott]

X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:

> But what if Gaelic borrowed the Germanic (e.g., Saxon)
> "walh" (presumably meaning foreigner)? There was apparently
> no initial /v/ or /w/ in Goidelic Celtic.  But in medieval
> times, it was not uncommon for the /g/ in Gaelic to stand-in
> for the /w/ in English.

Thurneysen says that PIE */w-/ became /B-/ (bilabial voiced fricative)
and then /f-/ and that early loans from Latin show the same development,
e.g., <fín> (<fi'n>) from <ui:num> 'wine', <fescor> from 'uesper'.
Later there's <Ualerán> (<Ualera'n>) 'Valerianus' c.800.  I'd expect an
early borrowing to show <f->, a later one, <u->.

Brian M. Scott