The Goidelic substrate hypothesis refers to the hypothesized language or languages spoken in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

before the Iron Age arrival of the Goidelic languages.

Hypothesis of non-Indo-European languages

Ireland was settled, like the rest of northern Europe, after the retreat of the

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at La ...

s c. 10,500 BC. Indo-European languages are usually thought to have been a much later arrival. Some scholars suggest that the Goidelic languages may have been brought by the

Bell Beaker The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from a ...

culture circa 2500 BC, in contrast to the generally accepted theory that it was brought by the advent of the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

. In contrast, other scholars argue for a much later date of arrival of Goidelic languages to Ireland based on linguistic evidence.

Peter Schrijver Peter Schrijver (; born 1963) is a Dutch linguist. He is a professor of Celtic languages at Utrecht University and a researcher of ancient Indo-European linguistics. He worked previously at Leiden University and the Ludwig Maximilian University ...

has suggested that Irish was perhaps preceded by an earlier wave of Celtic speaking colonists (based on population names attested in

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

's ''Geography'') who were displaced by a later wave of proto-Irish speakers only in the 1st century AD, following a migration in the wake of the Roman conquest of Britain, with Irish and British Celtic languages only branching off from a common Insular Celtic language around that time. Scholars have suggested: * that an older language or languages could have been replaced by the

Insular Celtic languages Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages of Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Brittany, ...

; and * that words and grammatical constructs from the original language, or languages, may nevertheless persist as a substrate in the Celtic languages, especially in placenames and personal names.

Suggested non-Indo-European words in Irish

Gearóid Mac Eoin Gearóid Mac Eoin (25 January 1929) is an Irish academic whose studies have focused especially on aspects of Irish language, literature and history. Background and education Mac Eoin was educated in Limerick and New Ross, where he attended ...

proposes the following words as deriving from the substrate: ''bréife'' 'ring, loop', cufar, ''cuifre''/''cuipre'' 'kindness', ''fafall''/''fubhal'', ''lufe'' ' feminine', ''slife'', ''strophais'' 'straw'; and the following placenames: Bréifne, Crufait, Dún Gaifi, Faffand, Grafand, Grafrenn, Life/Mag Liphi, Máfat.

submits the following words as deriving from the substrate: ''partán'' 'crab', '' Partraige'' (ethnonym), (note that ''partaing'' "crimson (Parthian) red" is a loanword from Lat. ''parthicus''), ''pattu'' 'hare', ''petta'' 'pet, lap-dog', ''pell'' 'horse', ''pít'' 'portion of food', ''pluc'' '(round) mass', ''prapp'' 'rapid', ''gliomach'' 'lobster', ''faochán'' 'periwinkle', ''ciotóg'' 'left hand', ''bradán'' 'salmon', ''scadán'' 'herring'. In a further study he gives counter-arguments against some criticisms by Graham Isaac.

Ranko Matasović Ranko Matasović (born 14 May 1968) is a Croatian linguist, Indo-Europeanist and Celticist. Biography Matasović was born and raised in Zagreb, where he attended primary and secondary school. In the Faculty of philosophy at the University of ...

lists ''lacha'' ("duck"), ''sinnach'' ("fox"), ''luis'' ("rowan"), ''lon'' ("blackbird"), ''dega'' ("beetle"), ''ness'' ("stoat"). He also points out that there are words of possibly or probably non-Indo-European origin in other Celtic languages as well; therefore, the substrate may not have been in contact with

Primitive Irish Primitive Irish or Archaic Irish ( ga, Gaeilge Ársa), also called Proto-Goidelic, is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages. It is known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland ...

but rather with

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...

. Examples of words found in more than one branch of Celtic but with no obvious cognates outside Celtic include: *Middle Irish 'young woman', Middle Welsh 'heifer', perhaps Gaulish ''anderon'' (possibly connected with Basque 'lady, woman') *Old Irish 'short', Middle Welsh 'short', Gaulish ''Birrus'' (name); possibly related to the '' birrus'', a short cloak or hood *Old Irish 'raven', Middle Welsh 'raven', Gaulish ''Brano-'', sometimes translated as 'crow' (name element, such as

Bran Ardchenn Bran Ardchenn mac Muiredaig (died 795) was a King of Leinster of the Uí Muiredaig sept of the Uí Dúnlainge branch of the Laigin. He was the son of Muiredach mac Murchado (died 760), a previous king. This sept had their royal seat at Maistiu (Mu ...

Bran Becc mac Murchado Bran Becc mac Murchada (died 738) was a King of Leinster from the Uí Dúnlainge branch of the Laigin. He was the son of Murchad mac Brain Mut (died 727), a previous king. He ruled briefly in 738. The ''Annals of Tigernach'' claim that in 738 Cat ...

, and

Bran the Blessed Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the hard outer layers of cereal grain. It consists of the combined aleurone and pericarp. Corn (maize) bran also includes the pedicel (tip cap). Along with germ, it is an integral part of whole grains ...

) *Middle Irish 'badger', Middle Welsh 'badger', Gaulish ''Broco-'' (name element) (borrowed into English as ''brock'') *Old Irish '(war) chariot', Welsh , Gaulish ''carpento-'', ''Carbanto-'' *Old Irish 'salmon', Middle Welsh 'salmon', Gaulish *''esoks'' (borrowed into Latin as ); has been compared with Basque ''izokin'' *Old Irish 'piece', Middle Welsh 'thing', Gaulish *''pettia'' (borrowed into Latin as and French as ) *Old Irish ' wether', Middle Welsh 'ram, wether', Gaulish ''Moltus'' (name) and *''multon-'' (borrowed into French as , from which to English as ''mutton'') The

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...

word for "horn", ''adarc'', is also listed as a potential Basque loanword; in Basque the word is ''adar''.

Gerry Smyth Gerry Smyth (born 14 September 1961) is an academic, musician, actor and playwright born in Dublin, Ireland. He works in the Department of English at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is Professor of Irish Cultural History. His early pub ...

, in ''Space and the Irish Cultural Imagination'', suggested that ''Dothar'', the

name for the

River Dodder The River Dodder ( ga, An Dothra) is one of the three main rivers in Dublin, Ireland, the others being the Liffey, of which the Dodder is the largest tributary, and the Tolka. Course and system The Dodder rises on the northern slopes of Ki ...

, could be a substrate word.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goidelic Substrate Hypothesis Languages of Ireland Prehistoric Ireland Indo-European linguistics Celtic studies Pre-Indo-Europeans Linguistic strata

Hypothesis of non-Indo-European languages

Suggested non-Indo-European words in Irish

See also

References