NSemitic borrowings: in response to Greg Web

[Jim Rader]

The Middle Welsh form is <seith>.  The development of  Mod. Welsh
<saith> from British Celtic <*sext-> is completely regular except for the
preservation of initial <s>.  The Gaulish ordinal for "seven" is
<sextametos>, if I remember correctly, and for "six" <suexos>.
Details on the forms and the values of <x> in Gallo-Latin
inscriptions are in Lambert's <La langue gauloise>, which I don't
happen to have in the office today.

Jim Rader

>  I'd like to know what the <a>
> is doing in Welsh saith (< *saxt < *sapt- ??).  Do we know the
> Gaulish or Celtiberian for "6" and "7"?  My guess would be,
> preliminarily, that the Basque forms are more likely to be
> borrowings from Celtic (We. chwech, saith) than directly from
> Semitic.
> =======================
> Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
> mcv at wxs.nl
> Amsterdam