Everything about Southwestern Brythonic totally explained
Southwestern Brythonic is the reconstructed
protolanguage representing one of two dialects into which the
Brythonic language split following the
Battle of Deorham in A.D.
577, the other being
Western Brythonic, which later evolved into
Welsh and
Cumbric.
It is the common ancestor of
Cornish and
Breton, which in the opinion of some (such as Schrijver) didn't become distinct before the
12th century, the terms "Old Cornish" and "Old Breton" being geographical rather than linguistic.
Some of the sound changes that distinguish Southwestern Brythonic from Welsh include:
- the raising of */(g)wo-/ to /(g)wu-/ in a pretonic syllable (in Welsh there was no raising)
- the fronting of */ɔː/ to /œː/ (in Welsh it diphthongized to /aw/)
- the fronting of */a/ to */e/ before */iː/ or */j/ in an old final syllable (in Welsh it diphthongized to /ei/)
Other significant differences are found in Welsh innovations that Southwestern Brythonic didn't participate in, such as the development of the
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/.
There has been some recent interest in the language, particularly in
Devon, and this has included study of a booklet entitled
A Handbook of West Country Brythonic: The Forgotten Celtic Tongue of South West England C.700 A.D. (Old Devonian) self published by Joseph Biddulph. Biddulph's work has been subject to criticism for not being sufficiently academic and for being effectively a
constructed language rather than a reconstruction based on the
comparative method.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Southwestern Brythonic'.
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